to- . 





Light on the- Path, 



WITH NOTES AND COMMENTS 



FOR THE PERSONAL USE OF THOSE WHO ARE IGNORANT 
OF THE EASTERN WISDOM, AND WHO DESIRE 
TO ENTER WITHIN ITS INFLUENCE. 



M. C. 



KeprtnteU, 

BT SPECIAL PERMISSION. 



OCCULT PUBLISHING COMPANY, 
BOSTON. 



BY THE AUTHOR. 



A TREATISE 




WRITTEN DOWN BY 



Woodbury 



Light on the Path. 



i. 

These rules are written for all disciples. 
Attend you to them. 

Before the eyes can see, they must be incapable 
of tears. Before the ear can hear, it must have 
lost its sensitiveness. Before the voice can speak 
in the presence of the Masters, it must have lost 
the power to wound. Before the soul can stand 
in the presence of the Masters, its feet must be 
washed in the blood of the heart. 

1. Kill out ambition. 

2. Kill out desire of life. 

3. Kill out desire of comfort. 

4. Work as those work who are ambitious. 
Respect life as those do who desire it. Be happy 
as those are who live for happiness. 

Seek in the heart the source of evil, and ex- 
punge it. It lives fruitfully in the heart of the 
devoted disciple, as well as in the heart of the 
man of desire. Only the strong can kill it out. 



2 



Light on the Path. 



The weak must wait for its growth, its fruition, 
its death. And it is a plant that lives and in- 
creases throughout the ages. It flowers when 
the man has accumulated unto himself innumer- 
able existences. He who will enter upon the 
path of power must tear this thing out of his 
heart. And then the heart will bleed, and the 
whole life of the man seem to be utterly dis- 
solved. This ordeal must be endured: it may 
come at the first step of the perilous ladder 
which leads to the path of life : it may not come 
until the last. But, O disciple ! remember that it 
has to be endured, and fasten the energies of 
your soul upon the task. Live neither in the 
present nor the future, but in the eternal. 
This giant weed cannot flower there : this blot 
upon existence is wiped out by the very atmos- 
phere of eternal thought.* 

*Note. — Ambition is the first curse, — the great tempter of 
the man who is rising above his fellows. It is the simplest 
form of looking for reward. Men of intelligence and power 
are led away from their higher possibilities by it continually. 
Yet it is a necessary teacher. Its results turn to dust and 
ashes in the mouth ; like death and estrangement, it shows the 
man at last, that to work for self is to work for disappointment. 
But, though this first rule seems so simple and easy, do not 
quickly pass it by. For these vices of the ordinary man pass 
through a subtle transformation, and re-appear with changed 
aspect in the heart of the disciple. It is easy to say, " I will 
not be ambitious : " it is not so easy to say, " When the Master 
reads the heart, He will find it clean utterly." The pure artist, 



Light on the Path. 



3 



5. Kill out all sense of separateness.* 

6. Kill out desire for sensation. 

7. Kill out the hunger for growth. 

8. Yet stand alone and isolated, because no- 
thing that is embodied, nothing that is conscious 
of separation, nothing that is out of the eternal, 

who works for the love of his work, is sometimes more firmly- 
planted on the right road than the occultist, who fancies he 
has removed his interest from self, but who has in reality only 
enlarged the limits of experience and desire, and transferred his 
interest to the things which concern his larger span of life. 
The same principle applies to the other two seemingly simple 
rules. Linger over them, and do not let yourself be easily de- 
ceived by your own heart. For now, at the threshold, a mis- 
take can be corrected. But carry it on with you, and it will 
grow and come to fruition, or else you must suffer bitterly in 
its destruction. 

* Note. — Do not fancy you can stand aside from the bad 
man or the foolish man. They are yourself, though in a less 
degree than your friend or your master. But if you allow the 
idea of separateness from any evil thing or person to grow up 
within you, by so doing you create Karma, which will bind you 
to that thing or person till your soul recognizes that it cannot be 
isolated. Remember that the sin and shame of the world are 
your sin and shame ; for you are a part of it, your Karma is inex- 
tricably interwoven with the great Karma. And, before you can 
attain knowledge, you must have passed through all places, 
foul and clean alike. Therefore, remember that the soiled gar- 
ment you shrink from touching may have been yours yesterday, 
may be yours to-morrow. And if you turn with horror from it 
when it is flung upon your shoulders, it will cling the more 
closely to you. The self-rightous man makes for himself a bed 
of mire. Abstain because it is right to abstain, not that your- 
self shall be kept clean. 



4 



Light on the Path. 



can aid you. Learn from sensation, and observe 
it ; because only so can you commence the sci- 
ence of self-knowledge, and plant your foot on 
the first step of the ladder. Grow as the flower 
grows, unsconsciously, but eagerly anxious to 
open its soul to the air. So must you press for- 
ward to open your soul to the eternal. But 
it must be the eternal that draws forth your 
strength and beauty, not desire of growth. For, 
in the one case, you develop in the luxuriance 
of purity ; in the other, you harden by the for- 
cible passion for personal stature. 

9. Desire only that which is within you. 

10. Desire only that which is beyond you. 

1 1 . i j Desire only that which is unattainable. 

12. For within you is the light of the world, 
the only light that can be shed upon the Path. 
If you are unable to perceive it within you, it is 
useless to look for it elsewhere. It is beyond 
you ; because, when you reach it, you have lost 
yourself. It is unattainable, because it forever 
recedes. You will enter the light, but you will 
never touch the flame. 

13. Desire power ardently. 

14. Desire peace fervently. 

15. Desire possessions above all. 



Light on the Path. 



5 



1 6. But those possessions must belong to 
the pure soul only, and be possessed therefore 
by all pure souls equally, and thus be the es- 
pecial property of the whole only when united. 
Hunger for such possessions as can be held by 
the pure soul, that you may accumulate wealth 
for that united spirit of life which is your only 
true self, f |The peace you shall desire is that sa- 
cred peace which nothing can disturb, and in 
which the soul grows as does the holy flower 
upon the still lagoons. And that power which 
the disciple shall covet is that which shall make 
him appear as nothing in the eyes of men. 

17. Seek out the way.* 

•Note. — These four words seem, perhaps, too slight to 
stand alone. The disciple may say, Should I study thoughts 
at all did I not seek out the way ? Yet do not pass on hastily. 
Pause and consider awhile. Is it the way you desire, or is it 
that there is a dim perspective in your visions of great heights 
to be scaled by yourself, of a great future for you to compass ? 
Be warned. The way is to be sought for its own sake, not 
with regard to your feet that shall tread it. 

There is a correspondence between this rule and the 17th of 
the 2d series. When, after ages of struggle and many victories, 
the final battle is won, the final secret demanded, then you are 
prepared for a further path. When the final secret of this 
great lesson is told, in it is opened the mystery of the new way, 
— a path which leads out of all human experience, and which 
is utterly beyond human perception or imagination. At each of 
these points it is needful to pause long and consider well. At 
each of these points it is necessary to be sure that the way is 
chosen for its own sake. The way and the truth come first, 
then follows the life. 



6 



Light on the Path. 



1 8. Seek the way by retreating within. 

19. Seek the way advancing boldly without. 

20. Seek it not by any one road. To each 
temperament, there is one road which seems the 
most desirable. But the way is not found by de- 
votion alone, by religious contemplation alone, by 
ardent progress, by self-sacrificing labor, by stud- 
ious observation of life. None alone can take 
the disciple more than one step onwards. All 
steps are necessary to make up the ladder. The 
vices of men become steps in the ladder, one by 
one, as they are surmounted. The virtues of 
man are steps indeed, necessary — not by any 
means to be dispensed with. Yet, though they 
create a fair atmosphere and a happy future, they 
are useless if they stand alone. The whole nature 
of man must be used wisely by the one who de- 
sires to enter the way. Each man is to himself 
absolutely the way, the truth, and life. But he 
is only so when he grasps his whole individuality 
firmly, and, by the force of his awakened spirit- 
ual will, recognizes this individuality as not 
himself, but that thing which he has with pain 
created for his own use, and by means of which 
he purposes, as his growth slowly develops his 
intelligence, to reach to the life beyond individu- 
ality. When he knows that for this his wonderful 



i 



Light on the Path. 



7 



complex, separated life exists, then indeed, and 
then only, he is upon the way. Seek it by 
plunging into the mysterious and glorious depths 
of your own inmost being. Seek it by testing 
all experience, by utilizing the senses, in order 
to understand the growth and meaning of in- 
dividuality, and the beauty and obscurity of those 
other divine fragments which are struggling side 
by side with you, and form the race to which 
you belong. Seek it by study of the laws of 
being, the laws of nature, the laws of the super- 
natural ; and seek it by making the profound 
obeisance of the soul to the dim star that burns 
within. Steadily, as you watch and worship, its 
light will grow stronger. Then you may know 
you have found the beginning of the way. And, 
when you have found the end, its light will sud- 
denly become the infinite light.* 

* Note. — Seek it by testing all experience; and remember, 
that, when I say this, I do not say, " Yield to the seductions 
of sense, in order to know it." Before you have become an 
occultist, you may do this, but not afterwards. When you have 
chosen and entered the path, you cannot yield to these seduc- 
tions without shame. Yet you can experience them without 
horror; can weigh, observe, and test them, and wait with the 
patience of confidence for the hour when they shall affect you 
no longer. But do not condemn the man that yields : stretch 
out your hand to him as a brother pilgrim whose feet have be- 
come heavy with mire. Remember, O disciple I that great though 
the gulf may be between the good man and the sinner, it is 
greater between the good man and the man who has attained 



8 



Light on the Path. 



21. Look for the flower to bloom in the si- 
lence that follows the storm ; not till then. 

It shall grow, it will shoot up, it will make 
branches and leaves and form buds, while the 
storm continues, while the battle lasts. But not 
till the whole personality of the man is dissolved 
and melted — not until it is held by the divine 
fragment which has created it, as a mere subject 
for grave experiment and experience — not until 
The whole nature has yielded, and become sub- 
ject unto its higher self, can the bloom open, 
then will come a calm such as comes in a tropical 
country after the heavy rain, when nature works 
so swiftly that one may see her action. Such 
a calm will come to the harassed spirit. And, 

knowledge ; it is immeasurable between the good man and the 
one on the threshold of divinity. Therefore be wary, lest too 
soon you fancy yourself a thing apart from the mass. When 
you have found the begining of the way, the star of your soul 
will show its light; and, by that light, you will perceive how 
great is the darkness in which it burns. Mind, heart, brain, — 
all are obscure and dark until the first great battle has been 
won. Be not appalled and terrified by this sight : keep your 
eyes fixed on the small light, and it will grow. But let the 
darkness within help you to understand the helplessness of 
those who have seen no light, whose souls are in profound 
gloom. Blame them not. Shrink not from them, but try to 
lift a little of the heavy Karma of the world : give your aid to 
the few strong hands that hold back the powers of darkness 
from obtaining complete victory. Then do you enter into a 
partnership of joy, which brings, indeed, terrible toil and pro- 
found sadness, but also a great and ever-increasing delight. 



Light on the Path. 



9 



in the deep silence, the mysterious event will oc- 
cur which will prove that the way has been found. 
Call it by what name you will, it is a voice that 
speaks where there is none to speak, it is a mes- 
senger that comes, — a messenger without form 
or substance, — or it is the flower of the soul 
that has opened. It cannot be described by any 
metaphor. But it can be felt after, looked for, 
and desired, even amid the raging of the storm. 
The silence may last a moment of time, or it may 
last a thousand years. But it will end. Yet you 
will carry its strength with you. Again and a- 
gain the battle must be fought and won. It is 
only for an interval that nature can be still.* 

Those written above are the first of the rules 
which are written on the walls of the Hall of 
Learning. Those that ask shall have. Those 
that desire to read shall read. Those who de- 
sire to learn shall learn.f 

* Note. — The opening of the bloom is the glorious moment 
when perception awakes : with it comes confidence, knowl- 
edge, certainty. The pause of the soul is the moment of won- 
der ; and the next moment of satisfaction, that is the silence. 

Know, O disciple ! that those who have passed through the 
silence, and felt its peace, and retained its strength, they long 
that you shall pass through it also. Therefore, in the Hall of 
Learning, when he is capable of entering there, the disciple 
will always find his master. 

t Note. — Those that ask shall have. But, though the or- 
dinary man asks perpetually, his voice is not heard. For he 



10 



Light on the Path. 



A Regard the three truths. They are equal. 



asks with his mind only, and the voice of the mind is only 
heard on that plane on which the mind acts. Therefore, not 
until the first twenty-one rules are past, do I say those that 
ask shall have. 

To read in the occult sense, is to read with the eyes of the 
spirit. To ask, is to feel the hunger within — the yearning of 
spiritual aspiration. To be able to read, means having obtained 
the power in a small degree of gratifying that hunger. When 
the disciple is ready to learn, then he is accepted, acknowledged, 
recognized. It must be so ; for he has lit his lamp, and it can- 
not be hidden. But to learn is impossible until the first great 
battle has been won. The mind may recognize truth, but the 
spirit cannot receive it Once having passed through the storm, 
and attained the peace, it is then always possible to learn, even 
though the disciple waver, hesitate, and turn aside. The voice 
of the silence remains within him ; and though he leave the 
path utterly, yet one day it will resound, and rend him asunder, 
and separate his passions from his divine possibilities. Then, 
with pain and desperate cries from the deserted lower self, he 
will return. 

Therefore I say, Peace be with you. " My peace I give unto 
you " can only be said by the Master to the beloved disciples 
who are as himself. There are some, even among those who 
are ignorant of the Eastern wisdom, to whom this can be said ; 
and to whom it can daily be said with more completeness. 



Peace be with you. 




Light on the Path. 



1 1 



II. 

Out of the silence that is peace, a resonant 
voice shall arise. And this voice will say : It is 
not well, thou hast reaped, now thou must sow. 
And, knowing this voice to be the silence itself, 
thou wilt obey. 

Thou who art now a disciple, able to stand, 
able to hear, able to see, able to speak ; who hast 
conquered desire, and attained to self-knowledge ; 
who hast seen thy soul in its bloom, and re- 
cognized it, and heard the voice of the silence, — 
go thou to the Hall of Learning, and read what 
is written there for thee.* 

I . Stand aside in the coming battle ; and 

* Note. — To be able to stand, is to have confidence ; to be 
able to hear, is to have opened the doors of the soul ; to be able 
to see, is to have obtained perception ; to be able to speak, is to 
have attained the power of helping others ; to have conquered 
desire, is to have learned how to use and control the self ; to 
have attained to self-knowledge, is to have retreated to the in- 
ner fortress from whence the personal man can be viewed with 
impartiality ; to have seen thy soul in its bloom, is to have ob- 
tained a momentary glimpse in thyself of the transfiguration 
which shall eventually make thee more than man ; to recognize, 
is to achieve the great task of gazing upon the blazing light 
without dropping the eyes, and not falling back in terror as 
though before some ghastly phantom. This happens to some ; 
and so, when the victory is all but won, it is lost. To hear the 



I 2 



Light on the Path. 



though thou fightest, be not thou the warrior. 

2. Look for the warrior, and let him fight 
in thee. 

3. Take his orders for battle, and obey them. 

4. Obey him, not as though he were a gen- 
eral, but as though he were thyself, and his spoken 
words were the utterance of thy secret desires; 
for he is thyself, yet infinitely wiser and stronger 
than thyself. Look for him, else, in the fever 
and hurry of the fight, thou mayest pass him ; 
and he will not know thee unless thou knowest 
him. If thy cry reach his listening ear, then will 
he fight in thee, and fill the dull void within. 
And, if this is so, then canst thou go through the 
fight cool and unwearied, standing aside, and 
letting him battle for thee. Then it will be im- 
possible for thee to strike one blow amissjj But if 
thou look not for him, if thou pass him by, then 
there is no safeguard for thee. Thy brain will reel, 
thy heart grow uncertain, and, in the dust of 
the battle-field, the sight and senses will fail, and 
thou wilt not know thy friends from thy enemies. 

voice of silence, is to understand that from within comes the 
only true guidance ; to go to the Hall of Learning, is to enter 
the state in which learning becomes possible. Then will many- 
words be written there for thee, and written in fiery letters for 
thee easily to read. For, when the disciple is ready, the Mas- 
ter is veady also. 



Light on the Path. 



He is thyself : yet thou art but finite, and lia- 
ble to error. He is eternal, and is sure. He is 
eternal truth. When once he has entered thee, 
and become thy warrior, he will never utterly 
desert thee ; and, at the day of the great peace, 
he will become one with thee. 

5. Listen to the song of life.* 

6. Store in your memory the melody you 
hear. 

7. Learn from it the lesson of harmony. 

8. You can stand upright now, firm as a rock 

* Note. — Look for it, and listen to it, first in your own heart. 
At first you may say it is not there ; when I search I find only 
discord. Look deeper. If again you are disappointed, pause, 
and look deeper again.) )There is a natural melody, an obscure 
fount, in every human heart. It may be hidden over and utterly 
concealed and silenced — but it is there. At the very base of 
your nature, you will find faith, hope, and love. He that chooses 
evil refuses to look within himself, shuts his ears to the melody 
of his heart, as he blinds his eyes to the light of his soul. He 
does this because he finds it easier to live in desires. But un- 
derneath all life is the strong current that cannot be checked ; 
the great waters are there in reality. Find them, and you will 
perceive that none, not the most wretched of creatures, but is 
a part of it, however he blind himself to the fact, and build 
up for himself a phantasmal outer form of horror. In that 
sense it is that I say to you : All those beings among whom you 
struggle on are fragments of the Divine. ■ And so deceptive is 
the illusion in which you live, that it is hard to guess where 
you will first detect the sweet voice in the hearts of others- 
But know that it is certainly within yourself. Look for it there ; 
and, once having heard it, you will more readily recognize it 
around you. 



14 



Light 071 the Path. 



amid the turmoil, obeying the warrior who is 
thyself and thy king. Unconcerned in the battle 
save to do his bidding, having no longer any care 
as to the result of the battle, — for one thing only 
is important, that the warrior shall win ; and you 
know he is incapable of dafeat, — standing thus, 
cool and awakened, use the hearing you have 
acquired by pain and by the destruction of pain. 
Only fragments of the great song come to your 
ears while yet you are but man. But, if you 
listen to it, remember it faithfully, so that none 
which has reached you is lost, and endeavor to 
learn from it the meaning of the mystery which 
surrounds you. In time you will need no teacher. 
For as the individual has voice, so has that in 
which the individual exists. Life itself has speech 
and is never silent. And its utterance is not, as 
you that are deaf may suppose, a cry : it is a song. 
Learn from it that you are a part of the harmony ; 
learn from it to obey the laws of the harmony. 

9. Regard earnestly all the life that sur- 
rounds you. 

10. Learn to look intelligently into the hearts 
of men.* 

* Note. — From an absolutely impersonal point of view, 
otherwise your sight is colored. Therefore impersonality must 
first be understood. 

Intelligence is impartial : no man is your enemy, no man is 



Light on the Path. 



I: 



1 1 . Regard most earnestly your own heart. 

12. For through your own heart comes the 
the one light which can illuminate life, and make 
it clear to your eyes. 

Study the hearts of men, that you may know 
what is that world in which you live, and of which 
you will to be a part. Regard the constantly 
changing and moving life which surrounds you, 
for it is formed by the hearts of men ; and, as you 
learn to understand their constitution and mean- 
ing, you will by degrees be able to read the larger 
word of life. 

1 3. Speech comes only with knowledge. At- 
tain to knowledge, and you will attain to speech.* 

After the thirteenth rule, I can add no words 
to what is already written. 

your friend. All alike are your teachers. Your enemy becomes 
a mystery that must be solved, even though it take ages ; for 
man must be understood. Your friend becomes a part of your- 
self, an extension of yourself, a riddle hard to read. Only one 
thing is more difficult to know — your own heart. Not until 
the bonds of personality are loosed, can that profound mystery 
of self begin to be seen. Not until you stand aside from it, will 
it in any way reveal itself to your understanding. Then, and not 
till then, can you grasp and guide it. Then, and not till then, 
can you use all its powers, and devote them to a worthy service. 

* Note. — It is impossible to help others till you have ob- 
tained some certainty of your own. When you have learned 
the first twenty-one rules, and have entered the Hall of Learn- 
ing with your powers developed and sense unchained, then you 
will find there is a fount within you from which speech will arise. 



i6 



Light on the Path. 



My peace I give unto you. 

These rules are written only for those to whom 
I give my peace, — those who can read what I have 
written with the inner as well as the outer sense. 

14. Having obtained the use of the inner 
senses, having conquered the desires of the outer 
senses, having conquered the desires of the in- 
dividual soul, and having obtained knowledge, 
prepare now, O disciple ! to enter upon the way 
in reality. The path is found : make yourself 
ready to tread it. 

15. Inquire of the earth, the air, and the wa- 
ter, of the secrets they hold for you. The de- 
velopment of your inner senses will enable you 
to do this. 

16. Inquire of the holy ones of the earth, of 
the secrets they hold for you. The conquering 
of the desires of the outer senses, will give you 
the right to do this. 

17. Inquire of the inmost, the one, of its fi- 
nal secret, which it holds for you through the ages. 

The great and difficult victory, the conquering 
of the desires of the individual soul, is a work of 
ages ; therefore expect not to obtain its reward 
until ages of experience have been accumulated. 
When the time of learning this seventeenth rule 



Light on the Path. 



17 



is reached, man is on the threshold of becoming 
more than man. 

18. The knowledge which is now yours is 
only yours because your soul has become one 
with all pure souls and with the inmost. It is a 
trust vested in you by the Most High. Betray 
it, misuse your knowledge, or neglect it, and it 
is possible even now for you to fall from the high 
estate you have attained. Great ones fall back, 
even from the threshold, unable to sustain the 
weight of their responsibility, unable to pass on. 
Therefore look forward always with awe and 
trembling to this moment, and be prepared for 
the battle. 

19. It is written, that, for him who is on the 
threshold of divinity, no law can be framed, no 
guide can exist. Yet to enlighten the disciple, 
the final struggle may be thus expressed : — 

Hold fast to that which is neither substance 
nor existence. 

20. Listen only to the voice which is soundless. 

21. Look only on that which is invisible 
alike to the inner and the outer sense. 

Peace be with you. 

A 



i8 



Karma. 



Consider with me that the individual existence 
is a rope which stretches from the infinite to the 
infinite, and has no end and no commencement, 
neither is it capable of being broken, This rope is 
formed of innumerable fine threads, which, lying 
closely together, form its thickness. These 
threads are colorless, are perfect in their qualities 
of straightness, strength, and levelness. This rope, 
passing as it does through all places, suffers strange 
accidents. Very often a thread is caught and 
becomes attached, or, perhaps, is only violently 
pulled away from its even way. Then for a great 
time it is disordered, and it disorders the whole. 
Sometimes one is stained with dirt or with color ; 
and not only does the stain run on further than 
the spot of contact, but it discolors other of the 
threads. And remember that the threads are 
living, — are like electric wires, more, are like 
quivering nerves. How far, then, must the stain, 
the drag awry, be communicated ! But eventually 
the long strands, the living threads which in their 
unbroken continuity form the individual, pass out 
of the shadow into the shine. Then the threads 



Light on the Path. 



19 



are no longer colorless, but golden ; once more 
they lie together, level. Once more harmony is 
established between them ; and, from that har- 
mony within, the greater harmony is perceived. 

This illustration presents but a small portion, 
a single side of the truth : it is less than a frag- 
ment. Yet dwell on it : by its aid, you may be 
led to perceive more. What it is necessary first to 
understand is, not that the future is arbitrarily 
formed by any separate acts of the present, but 
that the whole of the future is in unbroken con- 
tinuity with the present, as the present is with 
the past. On one plane, from one point of view, 
the illustration of the rope is correct. 

It is said that a little attention to occultism 
produces great Karmic results. That is because 
it is impossible to give any attention to occultism 
without making a definite choice between what 
are familiarly called good and evil. The first 
step in occultism brings the student to the tree 
of knowledge. He must pluck and eat ; he must 
choose. No longer is he capable of the indecision 
of ignorance. He goes on, either on the good 
or on the evil path. And to step definitely and 
knowingly even but one step on either path, pro- 
duces great Karmic results. The mass of men 
walk waveringly, uncertain as to the goal they 
aim at ; their standard of life is indefinite ; con- 



20 



Light on the Path. 



sequently their Karma operates in a confused 
manner. But, when once the threshold of know- 
ledge is reached, the confusion begins to lessen, 
and consequently the Karmic results increase 
enormously, because all are acting in the same 
direction on all the different planes ; for the oc- 
cultist cannot be half-hearted, nor can he return 
when he has passed the threshold. These things 
are as impossible as that the man should become 
the child again. The individuality has approached 
the state of responsibility by reason of growth : 
it cannot recede from it. 

He who would escape from the bondage of 
Karma must raise his individuality out of the 
shadow into the shine ; must so elevate his ex- 
istence that these threads do not come in contact 
with soiling substances, do not become so at- 
tached as to be pulled awry. He simply lifts 
himself out of the region in which Karma op- 
erates. He does not leave the existence which 
he is experiencing, because of that. The ground 
may be rough and dirty, or full of rich flowers 
whose pollen stains, and of sweet substances that 
cling and become attachments — but, overhead, 
there is always the free sky. He who desires to 
be Karmaless must look to the air for a home, 
and after that to the ether. He who desires to 
form good Karma will meet with many confusions, 



Light on the Path. 



21 



and, in the effort to sow rich seed for his own 
harvesting, may plant a thousand weeds, and 
among them the giant. Desire to sow no seed 
for your own harvesting : desire only to sow that 
seed the fruit of which shall feed the world. 
You are a part of the world : in giving it food, 
you feed yourself. Yet in even this thought 
there lurks a great danger which starts forward 
and faces the disciple who has for long thought 
himself working for good, while, in his inmost 
soul, he has perceived only evil ; that is, he has 
thought himself to be intending great benefit to 
the world, while all the time he has unconscious- 
ly embraced the thought of Karma, and the 
great benefit he works for is for himself. A man 
may refuse to allow himself to think of reward. 
But in that very refusal is seen the fact that re- 
ward is desired. And it is useless for the disciple 
to strive to learn by means of checking himself. 
The soul must be unfettered, the desires free. 
But until they are fixed only on that state where- 
in there is neither reward nor punishment, good 
nor evil, it is in vain that he endeavors. He may 
seem to make great progress, but some day he 
will come face to face with his own soul, and 
will recognize that when he came to the tree of 
knowledge he chose the bitter fruit and not the 
sweet ; and then the veil will fall utterly, and he 



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Light on the Path. 



will give up his freedom and become a slave of 
desire. Therefore be warned, you who are but 
turning towards the life of occultism. Learn now 
that there is no cure for desire, no cure for the 
love of reward, no cure for the misery of longing, 
save in the fixing of the sight and hearing upon 
that which is invisible and soundless. Begin 
even now to practise it, and so a thousand ser- 
pents will be kept from your path. Live in 
the eternal. 

The operations of the actual laws of Karma 
are not to be studied until the disciple has 
reached the point at which they no longer affect 
himself. The initiate has a right to demand the 
secrets of nature, and to know the rules which 
govern human life. He obtains this right by 
having escaped from the limits of nature, and 
by having freed himself from the rules which 
govern human life. He has become a recognized 
portion of the divine element, and is no longer 
affected by that which is temporary. He then 
obtains the knowledge of the laws which govern 
temporary conditions. Therefore, you who desire 
to understand the laws of Karma, attempt first to 
free yourself from these laws ; and this can only 
be done by fixing your attention on that which is 
unaffected by those laws. 



Comments on Liglit on the Path. 



23 



Comments on 
Light on the Path, 

" Before the eyes can see they must be incapable of tears." 

It should be very clearly remembered by all 
readers of this volume that it is a book which 
may appear to have some little philosophy in it, 
but very little sense, to those who believe it to 
be written in ordinary English. To the many, 
who read in this manner it will be — not caviare 
so much as olives strong of their salt. Be warned 
and read but a little in this way. 

There is another way of reading,, which is, in- 
deed, the only one of any use with many authors. 
It is reading, not between the lines but within 
the words. In fact, it is deciphering a profound 
cipher. All alchemical works are written in the 
cipher of which I speak ; it has been used by the 
great philosophers and poets of all time. It is 
used systematically by the adepts in life and 
knowledge, who, seemingly giving out their deep- 
est wisdom, hide in the very words which frame 
it its actual mystery. They cannot do more. 
There is a law of nature which insists that a man 



24 Comments on Light on the Path. 



shall read these mysteries for himself. By no 
other method can he obtain them. A man who 
desires to live must eat his food himself: this is 
the simple law of nature — which applies also to 
the higher life. A man who would live and act 
in it cannot be fed like a babe with a spoon ; he 
must eat for himself. 

I propose to put into new and sometimes plain- 
er language parts of " Light on the Path " ; but 
whether this effort of mine will really be any in- 
terpretation I cannot say. To a deaf and dumb 
man, a truth is made no more intelligible if, in 
order to make it so, some misguided linguist 
translates the words in which it is couched into 
every living or dead language, and shouts these 
different phrases in his ear. But for those who 
are not deaf and dumb one language is generally 
easier than the rest ; and it to such as these I ad- 
dress myself. 

The very first aphorisms of " Light on the 
Path," included under Number I. have, I know 
well, remained sealed as to their inner meaning 
to many who have otherwise followed the purpose 
of the book. 

There are four proven and certain truths with 
regard to the entrance to occultism, The Gates of 
Gold bar that threshold ; yet there are some who 
pass those gates and discover the sublime and 



Comments on Light on the Path. 2 5 



illimitable beyond. In the far spaces of Time all 
will pass those gates. But I am one who wish 
that Time, the great deluder, were not so over- 
masterful. To those who know and love him I 
have no word to say; but to the others — and 
there are not so very few as some may fancy — 
to whom the passage of Time is as the stroke of 
a sledge-hammer, and the sense of Space like the 
bars of an iron cage, I will translate and re-trans- 
late until they understand fully. 

The four truths written on the first page of 
" Light on the Path," refer to the trial initiation 
of the would-be occultist. Until he has passed 
it, he cannot even reach to the latch of the gate 
which admits to knowledge. Knowledge is man's 
greatest inheritance ; why, then, should he not 
attempt to reach it by every possible road ? The 
laboratory is not the only ground for experiment ; 
science, we must remember, is derived from sciens, 
present participle of scire, "to know," — its origin 
is similar to that of the word "discern," to "ken." 
Science does not therefore deal only with matter, 
no, not even its subtlest and obscurest forms. 
Such an idea is born merely of the idle spirit of 
the age. Science is a word which covers all forms 
of knowledge. It is exceedingly interesting to 
hear what chemists discover, and to see them 
finding their way through the densities of matter 



26 Comments on Light on the Path. 



to its finer forms ; but there are other kinds of 
knowledge than this, and it is not every one who 
restricts his ( strictly scientific ) desire for knowl- 
edge to experiments which are capable of being 
tested by the physical senses. 

Everyone who is not a dullard, or a man 
stupefied by some predominant vice, has guessed 
or even perhaps discovered with some certainty, 
that there are subtle senses lying within the 
physical senses. There is nothing at all extra- 
ordinary in this ; if we took the trouble to call 
Nature into the witness box we should find that 
everything which is perceptible to the ordinary 
sight, has something even more important than 
itself hidden within it; the microscope has opened 
a world to us, but within those encasements 
which the microscope reveals, lies the mystery 
which no machinery can probe. 

The whole world is animated and lit, down to 
its most material shapes, by a world within it. 
This inner world is called Astral by some people, 
and it is as good a word as any other, though it 
merely means starry ; but the stars, as Locke 
pointed out, are luminous bodies which give light 
of themselves. This quality is characteristic of 
the life which lies within matter ; for those who see 
it, need no lamp to see it by. The word star, more- 
over, is derived from the Anglo-Saxon " stir-an," 



Comments on Light on the Path. 



27 



to steer, to stir, to move, and undeniably it is the 
inner life which is master of the outer, just 
as a man's brain guides the movements of his 
lips. So that although Astral is no very excel- 
lent word in itself, I am content to use it for my 
present purpose. 

The whole of " Light on the Path " is written 
in an astral cipher and can therefore only be de- 
ciphered by one who reads astrally. And its 
teaching is chiefly directed towards the cultivation 
and development of the astral life. Until the 
first step has been taken in this development, the 
swift knowledge, which is called intuition with 
certainty, is impossible to man. And this positive 
and certain intuition is the only form of know- 
ledge which enables a man to work rapidly or 
reach his true and high estate, within the limit 
of his conscious effort. To obtain knowledge 
by experiment is too tedious a method for 
those who aspire to accomplish real work ; he 
who gets it by certain intuition, lays hands on 
its various forms with supreme rapidity, by 
fierce effort of will ; as a determined workman 
grasps his tools, indifferent to their weight or 
any other difficulty which may stand in his way. 
He does not stay for each to be tested ■ — ■ he 
uses such as he sees are fittest. 

All the rules contained in " Light on the Path," 



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Comments on Light on the Path. 



are written for all disciples, but only for disciples 
— those who "take knowledge." To none else 
but the student in this school are its laws of any 
use or interest. 

To all who are interested seriously in Occult- 
ism, I say first — take knowledge. To him who 
hath shall be given. It is useless to wait for it. 
The womb of Time will close before you, and in 
later days you will remain unborn, without pow- 
er. I therefore say to those who have any 
hunger or thirst for knowledge, attend to these 
rules. 

They are none of my handicraft or invention. 
They are merely the phrasing of laws in super- 
nature, the putting into words truths as absolute 
in their own sphere, as those laws which govern 
the conduct of the earth and its atmosphere. 

The senses spoken of in these four statements 
are the astral, or inner senses. 

No man desires to see that light which illu- 
mines the spaceless soul until pain and sorrow 
and despair have driven him away from the life 
of ordinary humanity. First he wears out pleas- 
ure ; then he wears out pain — till, at last, his 
eyes become incapable of tears. 

This is a truism, although I know perfectly 
well that it will meet with a vehement denial 
from many who are in sympathy with thoughts 



Comments on Light on the Path. 29 



which spring from the inner life. To see with the 
astral sense of sight is a form of activity which 
it is difficult for us to understand immediately. 
The scientist knows very well what a miracle is 
achieved by each child that is born into the 
world, when it first conquers its eye-sight and 
compels it to obey its brain. An equal miracle 
is performed with each sense certainly, but this 
ordering of sight is perhaps the most stupendous 
effort. Yet the child does it almost unconscious- 
ly, by force of the powerful heredity of habit. 
No one now is aware that he has ever done it 
at all ; just as we connot recollect the individual 
movements which enabled us to walk up a hill a 
year ago. This arises from the fact that we 
move and live and have our being in matter. 
Our knowledge of it has become intuitive. 

With our astral life it is very much otherwise. 
For long ages past, man has paid very little at- 
tention to it — so little, that he has practically 
lost the use of his senses. It is true, that in 
every civilization the star arises, and man confess- 
es, with more or less of folly and confusion, 
that he knows himself to be. But most often he 
denies it, and in being a materialist becomes that 
strange thing, a being which cannot see its own 
light, a thing of life which will not live, an astral 
animal which has eyes, and ears, and speech, 



30 



Comments oil Light on the Path. 



and power, yet will use none of these gifts. This 
is the case, and the habit of ignorance has become 
so confirmed, that now none will see with the in- 
ner vision till agony has made the physical eyes 
not only unseeing, but without tears — the moist- 
ure of life. To be incapable of tears is to have 
faced and conquered the simple human nature, 
and to have attained an equilibrium which cannot 
be shaken by personal emotions. It does not 
imply any hardness of heart, or any indifference. 
It does not imply the exhaustion of sorrow, when 
the suffering soul seems powerless to suffer a- 
cutely any longer ; it does not mean the deadness 
of old age, when emotion is becoming dull be- 
cause the strings which vibrate to it are wearing 
out. None of these conditions are fit for a dis- 
ciple, and if any one of them exist in him it 
must be overcome before the path can be entered 
upon. Hardness of heart belongs to the selfish 
man, the egotist, to whom the gate is for ever 
closed. Indifference belongs to the fool and the 
false philosopher ; those whose lukewarmness 
makes them mere puppets, not strong enough 
to face the realities of existence. When pain or 
sorrow has worn out the keenness of suffering, 
the result is a lethargy not unlike that which ac- 
companies old age, as it is usually experienced 
by men and women. Such a condition makes 



Comments on Light on the Path. 3 1 



the entrance to the path impossible, because the 
first step is one of difficulty and needs a strong 
man, full of psychic and physical vigour, to 
attempt it. 

It is a truth, that, as Edgar Allan Poe said, 
the eyes are the windows for the soul, the win- 
dows of that haunted palace in which it dwells. 
This is the very nearest interpretation into or^ 
dinary language of the meaning of the text. II 
grief, dismay, disappointment or pleasure, can 
shake the soul so that it loses its fixed hold on 
the calm spirit which inspires it, and the moist- 
ure of life breaks forth, drowning knowledge in 
sensation, then all is blurred, the windows are 
darkened, the light is useless. This is as literal 
a fact as that if a man, at the edge of a precipice, 
loses his nerve through some sudden emotion he 
will certainly fall. The poise of the body, the 
balance, must be preserved, not only in danger- 
ous places, but even on the level ground, and 
with all the assistance Nature gives us by the law 
of gravitation. So it is with the soul, it is the 
link between the outer body and the starry spirit 
beyond ; the divine spark dwells in the still place 
where no convulsion of Nature can shake the 
air ; this is so always. But the soul may lose 
its hold on that, its knowledge of it, even though 
these two are part of one whole; and it is 



32 Comments on Light on the Path. 



by emotion, by sensation, that this hold is loosed. 
To suffer either pleasure or pain, causes a vivid 
vibration which is, to the consciousness of man, 
life. Now this sensibility does not lessen when 
the disciple enters upon his training ; it increases. 
It is the first test of his strength ; he must suffer, 
must enjoy or endure, more keenly, than other 
men, while yet he has taken on him a duty which 
does not exist for other men, that of not allowing 
his suffering to shake him from his fixed purpose. 
He has, in fact, at the first step to take himself 
steadily in hand and put the bit into his own 
mouth ; no one else can do it for him. 

The first four aphorisms of " Light on the 
Path," refer entirely to astral development. 
This development must be accomplished to a 
certain extent' — that is to say it must be fully 
entered upon — before the remainder of the book 
is really intelligible except to the intellect; in 
fact, before it can be read as a practical, not a 
metaphysical treatise. 

In one of the great mystic Brotherhoods, there 
are four ceremonies, that take place early in the 
year, which practically illustrate and elucidate 
these aphorisms. They are ceremonies in which 
only novices take part, for they are simply ser- 
vices of the threshold. But it will show how 
serious a thing it is to become a disciple, when 



Comments on Light on the Path. 



55 



it is understood that these are all ceremonies of 
sacrifice. The first one is this of which I have 
been speaking. The keenest enjoyment, the 
bitterest pain, the anguish of loss and dispair, 
are brought to bear on the trembling soul, which 
has not yet found light in the darkness, which is 
helpless as a blind man is, and until these 
shocks can be endured without loss of equilibri- 
um the astral senses must remain sealed. This 
is the merciful law. The " medium, " or " spirit- 
ualist," who rushes into the psychic world with- 
out preparation, is a law-breaker, a breaker of 
the laws of super-nature. Those who break Na- 
ture's laws lose their physical health ; those who 
break the laws of the inner life, lose their psychic 
health. " Mediums " become mad, suicides, 
miserable creatures devoid of moral sense ; and 
often end as unbelievers, doubters even of that 
which their own eyes have seen. The disciple 
is compelled to become his own master before 
he adventures on this perilous path, and attempts 
to face those beings who live and work in the 
astral world, and whom we call masters, because 
of their great knowledge and their ability to 
control not only themselves but the forces 
around them. 

The condition of the soul when it lives for the 
life of sensation as distinguished from that of 



34 



Comments on Light on the Path. 



knowledge, is vibratory or oscillating, as dis- 
tinguished from fixed. That is the nearest literal 
representation of the fact ; but it is only literal to 
the intellect, not to the intuition. For this part 
of man's consciousness a different vocabulary 
is needed. The idea of " fixed " might perhaps 
be transposed into that of " at home." In sensa- 
tion no permanent home can be found, because 
change is the law of this vibratory existence, 
that fact is the first one which must be learned 
by the disciple. It is useless to pause and weep 
for a scene in a kaleidoscope which has passed. 

It is a very well-known fact, one with which 
Bulwer Lytton dealt with great power, that an 
intolerable sadness in the very first experience 
of the neophyte in Occultism. A sense of blank- 
ness falls upon him which makes the world a 
waste, and life a vain exertion. This follows his 
first serious contemplation of the abstract. In 
gazing, or even in attempting to gaze, on the in- 
effable mystery of his own higher nature, he 
himself causes the initial trial to fall on him. The 
oscillation between pleasure and pain ceases for 
— perhaps an instant of time ; but that is enough 
to have cut him loose from his fast moorings in 
the world of sensation. He has experienced, 
however briefly, the greater life ; and he goes on 
with ordinary existence weighted by a sense of 



Comments on Light on the Path. 3 5 



unreality, of blank, of horrid negation. This was 
the nightmare which visited Bulwer Lytton's 
neophyte in " Zanoni " ; and even Zanoni himself, 
who had learned great truths, and been entrust- 
ed with great powers, had not actually passed 
the threshold where fear and hope, despair and 
joy seem at one moment absolute realities, at the 
next mere forms of fancy. 

This initial trial is often brought on us by life 
itself. For life is after all, the great teacher. 
We return to study it, after we have acquired 
power over it, just as the master in chemistry 
learns more in the laboratory then his pupil does. 
There are persons so near the door of knowledge 
that life itself prepares them for it, and no in- 
dividual hand has to invoke the hideous guar- 
dian of the entrance. These must naturally be 
keen and powerful organizations, capable of the 
most vivid pleasure ; then pain comes and fills 
its great duty. The most intense forms of suffer- 
ing fall on such a nature, till at last it arouses 
from its stupor of consciousness, and by the force 
of its internal vitality steps over the threshold 
into a place of peace. Then the vibration of life 
loses its power of tyranny. The sensitive nature 
must suffer still ; but the soul has freed itself and 
stands aloof, guiding the life towards its greatness. 
Those who are the subjects of Time, and go slow- 



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Comments on Light o?i the Path. 



ly through all his spaces, live on through a long- 
drawn series of sensations, and suffer a constant 
mingling of pleasure and of pain. They do not 
dare to take the snake of self in a steady grasp 
and conquer it, so becoming divine; but prefer to 
go on fretting through divers experiences, suffer- 
ing blows from the opposing forces. 

When one of these subjects of Time decides 6 
enter on the path of Occultism, it is this which 
is his first task. If life has not taught it to him, 
if he is not strong enough to teach himself, and 
if he has power enough to demand the help of a 
master, then this fearful trial, depicted in Zanoni, 
is put upon him. The oscillation in which he 
lives, is for an instant stilled ; and he has to sur- 
vive the shock of facing what seems to him at 
first sight as the abyss of nothingness. Not till 
he has learned to dwell in this abyss, and has 
found its peace, is it possible for his eyes to have 
become incapable of tears. 

" Before the ear can hear, it must have lost its sensitiveness." 

The first four rules of Light on the Path are, 
undoubtedly, curious though the statement may 
seem, the most important in the whole book, 
save one only. Why they are so important is 
that they contain the vital law, the very creative 
essence of the astral man. And it is only in the 



Comments on Light on- the Path. 37 



astral ( or self-illuminated ) consciousness that the 
rules which follow them have any living meaning. 
Once attain to the use of the astral senses and it 
becomes a matter of course that one commences 
to use them ; and the later rules are but guidance 
in their use. When I speak like this I mean, 
naturally, that the first four rules are the ones 
which are of importance and interest to those 
who read them in print upon a page. . When 
they are engraved on a man's heart and on his 
life, unmistakably then the other rules become 
not merely interesting, or extraordinary, meta- 
physical statements, but actual facts in life which 
have to be grasped and experienced. 

The four rules stand written in the great 
chamber of every actual lodge of a living Broth- 
erhood. Whether the man is about to sell his 
soul to the devil, like Faust ; whether he is to be 
worsted in the battle, like Hamlet ; or whether 
he is to pass on within the precincts ; in any case 
these words are for him. The man can choose 
between virtue and vice, but not until he is a man ; 
a babe or a wild animal cannot so choose. Thus 
with the disciple, he must first become a disciple 
before he can even see the paths to choose be- 
tween. This effort of creating himself as a dis- 
ciple, the re-birth, he must do for himself without 
any teacher. Until the four rules are learned 



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Comments' on Liglit on the Path. 



no teacher can be of any use to him ; and that is 
why " the Masters " are referred to in the way 
they are. No real masters, whether adepts in 
power, in love, or in blackness, can affect a man 
till these four rules are passed. 

Tears, as I have said, may be called the 
moisture of life. The soul must have laid aside 
the emotions of humanity, must have secured a 
balance which cannot be shaken by misfortune, 
before its eyes can open upon the super-human 
world. 

The voice of the Masters is always in the 
world ; but only those hear it whose ears are no 
longer receptive of the sounds which affect the 
personal life. Laughter no longer lightens the 
heart, anger may no longer enrage it, tender 
words bring it no balm. For that within, to 
which the ears are as an outer gateway, is an un- 
shaken place of peace in itself which no person 
can disturb. 

As the eyes are the windows of the soul, so 
are the ears its gateways or doors. Through 
them comes knowledge of the confusion of the 
world. The great ones who have conquered 
life, who have become more than disciples, stand 
at peace and undisturbed amid the vibration and 
kaleidoscopic movement of humanity. They 
hold within themselves a certain knowledge, as 



Comments on Liglit on the Path. 



39 



well as a perfect peace ; and thus they are not 
roused or excited by the partial and erroneous 
fragments of information which are brought to 
their ears by the changing voices of those around 
them. When I speak of knowledge, I mean in- 
tuitive knowledge. This certain information can 
never be obtained by hard work, or by experi- 
ment ; for these methods are only applicable to 
matter, and matter is in itself a perfectly uncer- 
tain substance, continually effected by change. 
The most absolute and universal laws of natural 
and physical life, as understood by the scientist, 
will passed away when the life of this universe has 
passed away, and only its soul is left in the silence. 
What then will be the value of the knowledge of 
its laws acquired by industry and observation ? I 
pray that no reader or critic will imagine that by 
what I have said I intend to depreciate or disparage 
acquired knowledge, or the work of scientists. On 
the contrary, I hold that scientific men are the 
pioneers of modern thought. The days of litera- 
ture and of art, when poets and sculptors saw the 
divine light, and put it into their own great lan- 
guage — these days lie buried in the long past with 
the ante-Phidian sculptors and the pre-Homeric 
poets. The mysteries no longer rule the world 
of thought and beauty ; human life is the govern- 
ing power, not that which lies beyond it. But 



4-0 Comments on Light on the Path. 

the scientific workers are progressing, not so 
much by their own will as by sheer force of 
circumstances, towards the far line which divides 
things interpretable from things uninterpretable. 
Every fresh discovery drives them a step on- 
ward. Therefore do I very highly esteem the 
knowledge obtained by work and experiment. 

But intuitive knowledge is an entirely different 
thing. It is not acquired in any way, but is, so 
to speak, a faculty of the soul ; not the animal 
soul, that which becomes a ghost after death,when 
lust or liking or the memory of ill-deeds holds 
it to the neighborhood of human beings, but the 
divine soul which animates all the external forms 
of the individualised being. 

This is, of course, a faculty which indwells in 
that soul which is inherent. The would-be dis- 
ciple has to arouse himself to the consciousness 
of it by a fierce and resolute and indomitable 
effort of will. I use the word indomitable for a 
special reason. Only he who is untameable, who 
cannot be dominated, who knows he has to play 
the lord over men, over facts, over all things 
save his own divinity, can arouse this faculty. 
" With faith all things are possible." The skep- 
tical laugh at faith and pride themselves on its 
absence from their own minds. The truth is 
that faith is a great engine, an enormous power, 



Comments on Light on the Path. 



4* 



which in fact can accomplish all things. For it 
is the covenant or engagement between man's 
divine part and his lesser self. 

The use of this engine is quite necessary in 
order to obtain intuitive knowledge ; for unless 
a man believes such knowledge exists within him- 
self how can he claim and use it ? 

Without it he is more helpless than any drift- 
wood or wreckage on the great tides of the ocean. 
They are cast hither and thither indeed ; so may 
a man be by the chances of fortune. But such 
adventures are purely external and of very small 
account. A slave may be dragged through the 
streets in chains, and yet retain the quiet soul of 
a philosopher, as was well seen in the person of 
Epictetus. A man may have every worldly prize 
in his possession, and stand absolute master of 
his personal fate, to all appearance, and yet he 
knows no peace, no certainty, because he is shak- 
en within himself by every tide of thought that 
he touches on. And these changing tides do not 
merely sweep the man bodily hither and thither 
like drift-wood on the water ; that would be noth- 
ing. They enter into the gateways of his soul, and 
wash over that soul and make it blind and blank 
and void of all permanent intelligence, so that 
passing impressions affect it. 

To make my meaning plainer I will use an 



42 



Comments on Light on the Path. 



illustration. Take an author at his writing, a 
painter at his canvas, a composer listening to the 
melodies that dawn upon his glad imagination ; 
let any one of these workers pass his daily hours 
by a wide window looking on a busy street. The 
power of the animating life blinds sight and 
hearing alike, and the great traffiic of the. city 
goes by like nothing but a passing pageant. 
But a man whose mind is empty, whose day is 
objectless, sitting at the same window, notes the 
passers-by and remembers the faces that chance 
to please or interest him. So it is with the mind 
in its relation to eternal truth. If it no longer 
transmits its fluctuations, its partial knowledge, 
its unreliable information to the soul, then in the 
inner place of peace already found when the first 
rule has been learned — in that inner place there 
leaps into flame the light of actual knowledge. 
Then the ears begin to hear. Very dimly, very 
faintly at first. And, indeed, so faint and tender 
are these first indications of the commencement 
of true actual life, that they are sometimes 
pushed aside as mere fancies, mere imaginings. 

But before these are capable of becoming more 
than mere imaginings, the abyss of nothingness 
has to be faced in another form. The utter silence 
which can only come by closing the ears to all 
transitory sounds comes as a more appalling 



Comments on Light on the Path. 43 



horror than even the formless emptiness of space. 
Our only mental conception of blank space is, I 
think, when reduced to its barest element of 
thought, that of black darkness. This is a great 
physical terror to most persons, and when re- 
garded as an eternal and unchangable fact, must 
mean to the mind the idea of annihilation rather 
than anything else. But it is the obliteration of 
one sense only ; and the sound of a voice may 
come and bring comfort even in the profoundest 
darkness. The disciple, having found his way 
into this blackness, which is the fearful abyss, 
must then so shut the gates of his soul that no 
comforter can enter there nor any enemy. And 
it is in making this second effort that the fact of 
pain and pleasure being but one sensation be- 
comes recognisable by those who have before 
been unable to perceive it. For when the solitude 
of silence is reached the soul hungers so fiercely 
and passionately for some sensation on which to 
rest, that a painful one would be as keenly wel- 
comed as a pleasant one. When this conscious- 
ness is reached the courageous man by seizing 
and retaining it, may destroy the " sensitiveness " 
at once. When the ear no longer discriminates 
between that which is pleasant or that which is 
painful, it will no longer be affected by the voices 
of others. And then it is safe and possible to 



44 Comments on Light on the Path' 



open the doors of the soul. 

" Sight " is the first effort, and the easiest, be- 
cause it is accomplished partly by an intellectual 
effort. The intellect can conquer the heart, as is 
well known in ordinary life. Therefore, this pre- 
liminary step still lies within the dominion of 
matter. But the second step allows of no such 
assistance, nor of any material aid whatever. Of 
course, I mean by material aid the action of the 
brain, or emotions, or human soul. In compel- 
ling the ears to listen only to the eternal silence, 
the being we call man becomes something which 
is no longer man. A very superficial survey of 
the thousand and one influences which are brought 
to bear on us by others will show that this must 
be so. A disciple will fulfil all the duties of his 
manhood ; but he will fulfil them according to 
his own sense of right, and not according to that 
of any person or body of persons. This is a very 
evident result of following the creed of knowledge 
instead of any of the blind creeds. 

To obtain the pure silence necessary for the 
disciple, the heart and emotions, the brain and 
its intellectualisms, have to be put aside. Both 
are but mechanisms, which will perish with the 
span of man's life. It is the essence beyond, that 
which is the motive power, and makes man live, 
that is now compelled to rouse -itself and act. 



Comments on Light on the Path. 



45 



Now is the greatest hour of danger. In the first 
trial men go mad with fear ; of this first trial Bul- 
wer Lytton wrote. No novelist has followed to 
the second trial, though some of the poets have. 
Its subtlety and great danger lies in the fact that 
in the measure of a man's strength is the measure 
of his chance of passing beyond it or coping with 
it at all. If he has power enough to awaken that 
unaccustomed part of himself, the supreme es- 
sence, then has he power to lift the gates of gold, 
then is he the true alchemist, in possession of 
the elixir of life. 

It is at this point of experience that the oc- 
cultist becomes separated from all other men and 
enters on to a life which is his own ; on to the 
path of individual accomplishment instead of 
mere obedience to the genii which rule our earth. 
This raising of himself into an individual power 
does in reality identify him with the nobler for- 
ces of life and make him one with them. For 
they stand beyond the powers of this earth and 
the laws of this universe. Here lies man's only 
hope of success in the great effort ; to leap right 
away from his present standpoint to his next and 
at once become an intrinsic part of the divine 
power as he has been as intrinsic part of the in- 
tellectual power, of the great nature to which he 
belongs. He stands always in advance of him- 



4 6 



Comments on Light on the Path. 



self, if such a contradiction can be understood. It 
is the men who adhere to this position, who be- 
lieve in their innate power of progress, and that 
of the whole race, who are the elder brothers, 
the pioneers. Each man has to accomplish the 
great leap for himself and without aid ; yet it is 
something of a staff to lean on to know that oth- 
ers have gone on that road. It is possible that 
they have been lost in the abyss ; no matter, they 
have had the courage to enter it. Why I say that 
it is possible they have been lost in the abyss 
is because of this fact, that one who has passed 
through is unrecognizable until the other and al- 
together new condition is attained by both. It 
is unnecessary to enter upon the subject of what 
that condition is at present. I only say this, that 
in the early state in which man is entering upon 
the silence he loses knowledge of his friends, of his 
lovers, of all who have been near and dear to him ; 
and also loses sight of his teachers and of those 
who have preceded him on his way. I explain this 
because scarce one passes through without bitter 
complaint. Could but the mind grasp beforehand 
that the silence must be complete, surely this 
complaint need not arise as a hindrance on the 
path. Your teacher, or your predecessor may- 
hold your hand in his, and give you the utmost 
sympathy the human heart is capable of. But 



Comments on Light on the Path. 47 



when the silence and the darkness comes, you 
lose all knowledge of him ; you are alone and he 
cannot help you, not because his power is gone, 
but because you have invoked your great enemy. 

By your great enemy, I mean yourself. If 
you have the power to face your own soul in the 
darkness and silence, you will have conquered 
the physical or animal self which dwells in sen- 
sation only. 

This statement, I feel, will appear involved ; 
but in reality it is quite simple. Man, when he 
has reached his fruition, and civilization is at its 
height, stands between two fires. Could he but 
claim his great inheritance, the encumbrance of 
the mere animal life would fall away from him 
without difficulty. But he does not do this, and 
so the races of men flower and then droop and 
die and decay off the face of the earth, however 
splendid the bloom may have been. And it is 
left to the individual to make this great effort ; 
to refuse to be terrified by his greater nature, to 
refuse to be drawn back by his lesser or more 
material self. Every individual who accomplishes 
this is a great redeemer of the race. He may 
not blazon forth his deeds, he may dwell in secret 
and silence ; but it is a fact that he forms a link 
between man and his divine part ; between the 
known and the unknown ; between the stir of the 



48 Comments on Light on the Path' 



marketplace and the stillness of the snow-capped 
Himalayas. He has not to go about among men 
in order to form this link ; in the astral he is that 
link, and this fact makes him a being of another 
order from the rest of mankind, - Even so early 
on the road towards knowledge, when he has but 
taken the second step, he finds his footing more 
certain, and becomes conscious that he is a re- 
cognized part of a whole. 

This is one of the contradictions in life which 
occur so constantly that they afford fuel to the 
fiction writer. The occultist finds them become 
much more marked as he endeavors to live the 
life he has chosen. As he retreats within him- 
self and becomes self-dependent, he finds himself 
more definitely becoming part of a great tide of 
definite thought and feeling. When he has learned 
the first lesson, conquered the hunger of the heart, 
and refused to live on the love of others, he finds 
himself more capable of inspiring love. As he 
flings life away it comes to him in a new form 
and with a new meaning. The world has always 
been a place with many contradictions in it, to 
the man ; when he becomes a disciple he finds 
life is describable as a series of paradoxes. This 
is a fact in nature, and the reason for it is intelli- 
gible enough. Man's soul " dwells like a star 
apart," even that of the vilest among us ; while 



Comments on Light on the Path. 49 



his consciousness is under the law of vibratory 
and sensuous life. This alone is enough to cause 
those complications of character which are the 
material for the novelist ; every man is a mystery, 
to friend and enemy alike, and to himself. 
His motives are often undiscoverable, and he can- 
not probe to them or know why he does this or 
that. The disciple's effort is that of awakening 
consciousness in this starry part of himself, where 
his power and divinity lie sleeping. As this con- 
sciousness becomes awakened, the contradictions 
in the man himself become more marked than 
ever ; and so do the paradoxes which he lives 
through. For, of course man creates his own 
life ; and "adventures are to the adventurous" is 
one of those wise proverbs which are drawn from 
actual fact, and cover the whole area of human 
experience. 

Pressure on the divine part of man re-acts up- 
on the animal part. As the silent soul awakes 
it makes the ordinary life of the man more pur- 
poseful, more vital, more real, and responsible. 
To keep to the two instances already mentioned, 
the occultist who has withdrawn into his own 
citadel has found his strength ; immediately he 
becomes aware of the demands of duty upon him. 
He does not obtain his strength by his own right, 
but because he is a part of the whole ; and as 



50 Comments on Light on the Path. 



soon as he is safe from the vibration of life and 
can stand unshaken, the outer world cries out to 
him to come and labor in it. So with the heart. 
When it no longer wishes to take, it is called 
upon to give abundantly. 

" Light on the Path " has been called a book of 
paradoxes, and very justly ; what else could it be, 
when it deals with the actual personal experience 
of the disciple? 

To have acquired the astral senses of sight and 
hearing ; or in other words to have attained per- 
ception and opened the doors of the soul, are 
gigantic tasks and may take the sacrifice of many 
successive incarnations. And yet, when the will 
has reached its strength, the whole miracle may 
be worked in a second of time. Then is the dis- 
ciple the servant of Time no longer. 

These two first steps are negative ; that is to 
say they imply retreat from a present condition 
of things rather than advance towards another. 
The two next are active, implying the advance 
into another state of being. 

" Before the voice can speak in the presence of the Masters." 

Speech is the power of communication ; the 
moment of entrance into active life is marked by 
its attainment. 

And now, before I go any further, let me ex- 



Comments on Light on the Path. 5 1 



plain a little the way in which the rules written 
down in " Light on the Path " are arranged. 
The first seven of those which are numbered are 
sub-divisions of the two first unnumbered rules, 
those with which I have dealt in the two preced- 
ing papers. The numbered rules were simply 
an effort of mine to make the unnumbered ones 
more intelligible. "Eight" to "fifteen" of these 
numbered rules belong to this unnumbered rule 
which is now my text. 

As I have said, these rules are written for all 
disciples, but for none else ; they are not of in- 
terest to any other persons. Therefore I trust 
no one else will trouble to read these papers any 
further. The first two rules, which include the 
whole of that part of the effort which necessi- 
tates the use of the surgeon's knife, I will en- 
large upon further if I am asked to do so. But 
the disciple is expected to deal with a snake, his 
lower self, unaided ; to suppress his human pas- 
sions and emotions by the force of his own will. 
He can only demand assistance of a master 
when this is accomplished, or at all events, par- 
tially so. Otherwise the gates and windows of 
his soul are blurred, and blinded, and darkened, 
and no knowledge can come to him. I am not, 
in these papers, purposing to tell a man how to 
deal with his own soul, I am simply giving, to 



52 



Comments on Light on the Path. 



the disciple, knowledge. That I am not writing 
even now, so that all who run may read, is ow- 
ing to the fact that super-nature prevents this by 
its own immutable laws. . &- 

The four rules which I written down for those 
in the West who wish to study them, are as I 
have said, written in the ante-chamber of every 
living Brotherhood ; I may add more, in the ante- 
chamber of every living or dead Brotherhood, or 
Order yet to be formed. When I speak of a Broth- 
erhood or an Order, I do not mean an arbitrary 
constitution made by scholiasts or intellectualists; 
I mean an actual fact in super-nature, a stage* of 
development towards the absolute God or Good. 
During this development the disciple encounters 
harmony, pure knowledge, pure truth, in different 
degrees, and as he enters these degrees, he finds 
himself becoming part of what might be roughly 
described as a layer of human consciousness. 
He encounters his equals, men of his own self-less 
character, and with them his association becomes 
permanent and indissoluble, because founded on 
a vital likeness of nature. To them he becomes 
pledged by such vows as need no utterance or 
framework in ordinary words. This is one aspect 
of what I mean by a Brotherhood. 

If the first rules are conquered, the disciple 
finds himself standing at the threshold. Then if 



Comments on Light on the Path. 



53 



his will is sufficiently resolute his power of speech 
comes ; a two-fold power. For, as he advances 
now, he finds himself entering into a state of blos- 
soming, where every bud that opens throws out 
its several rays or petals. If he is to exercise 
his new gift, he must use it in its two-fold char- 
acter. He finds in himself the power to speak in 
the presence of the masters ; in other words, he . 
has the right to demand contact with the di- 
vinest element of that state of consciousness into 
which he has entered. But he finds himself com- 
pelled, by the nature of his position, to act in two 
ways at the same time. He cannot send his 
voice up to the heights where sit the gods till he 
has penetrated to the deep places where their 
light shines not at all. He has come within the 
grip of an iron law. If he demands to become 
a neophyte, he at once becomes a servant. Yet 
his service is sublime, if only from the character 
of those who share it. For the masters are also 
servants ; they serve and claim their reward 
afterwards. Part of their service is to let their 
knowledge touch him ; his first act of service is 
to give some of that knowledge to those who are 
not yet fit to stand where he stands. This is no ar- 
bitrary decision, made by any master or teacher 
or any such person, however divine. It is a law 
of that life which the disciple has entered upon. 



54 Comments on Light on the Path 



Therefore was it written in the inner doorway 
of the lodges of the old Egyptian Brotherhood, 
" the laborer is worthy of his hire." " Ask and 
ye shall have," sounds like something too easy 
and simple to be credible. But the disciple can- 
not " ask " in the mystic sense in which the word 
is used in this scripture until he has attained the 
power of helping others. 

Why is this ? Has the statement too dogmatic 
a sound? 

Is it too dogmatic to say that a man must have 
foothold before he can spring ? The position is 
the same. If help is given, if work is done, then 
there is actual claim — not what we call a person- 
al claim of payment, but the claim of co-nature. 
The divine give, they demand that you also shall 
give before you can be of their kin. 

This law is discovered as soon as the disciple 
endeavors to speak. For speech is a gift which 
comes only to the disciple of power and knowl- 
edge. The spiritualist enters the psychic-astral 
world, but he does not find there any certain 
speech, unless he at once claims it and continues 
to do so. If he is interested in " phenomena," 
or mere circumstance and accident of astral life, 
then he enters no direct ray of thought or pur- 
pose, he merely exists and amuses himself in the 
astral life as he has existed and amused himself 



Comments 071 Light on the Path. 



55 



in the physical life. Certainly there are one or 
two simple lessons which the psychic-astral can 
teach him, just as there are simple lessons which 
material and intellectual life teach him. And 
these lessons have to be learned ; the man who 
proposes to enter upon the life of the disciple 
without having learned the early and simple les- 
sons must always suffer from his ignorance. 
They are vital, and have to be studied in a vital 
manner ; experienced through and through, over 
and over again, so that each part of the nature 
has been penetrated by them. 

To return. In claiming the power of speech, 
as it is called, the Neophyte cries out to the 
Great One who stands foremost in the ray of 
knowledge on which he has entered, to give him 
guidance. When he does this, his voice is hurled 
back by the power he has approached, and ech- 
oes down to the deep recesses of human ignor- 
ance. In some confused aud blurred manner 
the news that there is knowledge and abeneficient 
power which teaches is carried to as many men 
as will listen to it. No disciple can cross the 
threshold without communicating this news, and 
placing it on record in some fashion or other. 

He stands horror-struck at the imperfect and 
unprepared manner in which he has done this ; 
and then comes the desire to do it well, and with 



56 Comments on Light on the Path. 

the desire thus to help others comes the power. 
For it is a pure desire, this which comes upon 
him ; he can gain no credit, no glory, no person- 
al reward by fulfilling it. And therefore he ob- 
tains the power to fulfil it. 

The history of the whole past, so far as we 
can trace it, shows very plainly that there is 
neither credit, glory, or reward to be gained by 
this first task which is given to the Neophyte. 
Mystics have always been sneered at, and seers 
disbelieved ; those who have had the added pow- 
er of intellect have left for posterity their written 
record, which to most men appears unmeaning 
and visionary, even when the authors have the 
advantage of speaking from a far-off past. The 
disciple who undertakes the task, secretly hoping 
for fame or success, to appear as a teacher and 
apostle before the world, fails even before his 
task is attempted, and his hidden hypocracy 
poisons his own soul, and the souls of those he 
touches. He is secretly worshiping himself, and 
this idolatrous practice must bring forth its own 
reward. 

The disciple who has the power of entrance, 
and is strong enough to pass each barrier, will, 
when the divine message comes to his spirit, 
forget himself utterly in the new consciousness 
which falls upon him. If this lofty contact can 



Comments on Light on the Path. 57 



really rouse him, he becomes as one of the divine 
in his desire to give rather than to take, in his 
wish to help rather than be helped, in his resolu- 
tion to feed the hungry rather than take 
manna from Heaven himself. His nature is 
transformed, and the selfishness which prompts 
men's actions in ordinary life suddenlydeserts him. 

" Before the voice can speak in the presence of the Masters, 
it must have lost the power to wound." 

Those who give merely passing and superficial 
attention to the subject of occultism — and their 
name is Legion — constantly inquire why, if 
adepts in life exist, they do not appear in the 
world and show their power. That the chief 
body of these wise ones should be understood to 
dwell beyond the fastnesses of the Himalayas, 
appears to be sufficient proof that they are only 
figures of straw. Otherwise why place them so 
far off? 

Unfortunately, Nature has done this and not 
personal choice or arrangement. There are cer- 
tain spots on the earth where the advance of 
" civilization " is unfelt, and the nineteenth 
century fever is kept at bay. In these favored 
places there is always time, always opportunity, 
for the realities of life ; they are not crowded out 
by the doings of an inchoate, money-loving^ 
pleasure seeking society. While there are adepts 



58 Comments on Light on the Path 

upon the earth, the earth must preserve to them 
places of seclusion. This is a fact in nature 
which is only an external expression of a profound 
fact in super-nature. 

The demand of the neophyte remains unheard 
until the voice in which it is uttered has lost the 
power to wound. This is because the divine-as- 
tral life* is a place in which order reigns, just as 
it does in natural life. There is, of course, always 
the centre and the circumference as there is in 
nature. Close to the central heart of life, on any 
plane, there is knowledge, there order reigns 
completely ; and chaos makes dim and confused 
the outer margin of the Circle. In fact, life in 
every form bears a more or less strong resem- 
blance to a philosophic school. There are always 
the devotees to knowledge who forget their own 
lives in their pursuit of it ; there are always the 

flippant crowd who come and go Of such, 

Epictus said that it was as easy to teach them 
philosophy as to eat custard with a fork. The 
same state exists in the super-astral life ; and the 
adept has an even deeper and more profound se- 
clusion there in which to dwell. This place of 

* Of course every occultist knows by reading Eliphas Levi and 
other authors that the "astral " plane is a plane of unequalized 
forces, and that a state of confusion necessarily prevails. But 
this does not apply to the "divine astral" plane, which is a 
plane where wisdom, and therefore order, prevails. 



Comments on Light on the Path. 59 



retreat is so safe, so sheltered, that no sound 
which has discord in it can reach his ears. Why 
should this be, will be asked at once, if he is a 
being of such great powers as those say who 
believe in his existence ? The answer seems 
very apparent. He serves humanity and identi- 
fies himself with the whole world ; he is ready to 
make vicarious sacrifice for it at any moment — 
by living not by dying for it. Why should he 
not die for it ? Because he is part of the great 
whole, and one of the most valuable parts of it. 
Because he lives under laws of order which he 
does not desire to break. His life is not his own, 
but that of the forces which work behind him. 
He is the flower of humanity, the bloom which 
contains the divine seed. He is, in his own per- 
son, a treasure of the universal nature, which is 
guarded and made safe in order that the fruition 
shall be perfected. It is only at definite periods 
of the world's history that he is allowed to go 
among the herd of men as their redeemer. But 
for those who have the power to separate them- 
selves from this herd he is always at hand. And 
for those who are strong enough to conquer the 
vices of the personal human nature, as set forth 
in these four rules, he is consciously at hand, 
easily recognized, ready to answer. 

But this conquering of self implies a destruc- 



6o 



Comments on Light on the Path. 



tion of qualities which most men regard as not 
only indestructible but desirable. The "power 
to wound" includes much that men value, not 
only in themselves, but in others. The instinct 
of self-defence and of self-preservation is part of 
it; the idea that one has any right or rights, 
either as citizen, or man, or individual, the pleas- 
ant consciousness of self-respect and of virtue. 
These are hard sayings to many ; yet they are 
true. For these words that I am writing now, 
and those which I have written on this subject, 
are not in any sense my own. They are drawn 
from the traditions of the lodge of the great 
Brotherhood, which was once the secret splen- 
dor of Egypt. The rules written in its ante-cham- 
ber were the same as those now written in the 
ante-chamber of existing schools. Through all 
time the wise men have lived apart from the mass. 
And even when some temporary purpose or ob- 
ject induces one of them to come into the midst 
of human life, his seclusion and safety is pre- 
served as completely as ever. It is part of his in- 
heritance, part of his position, he has an actual 
title to it, and can no more put it aside then the 
Duke of Westminster can say he does not choose 
to be the Duke of Westminster. In the various 
great cities of the world an adept lives for a 
while from time to time, or perhaps only passes 



Comments on LigJit on the Path. 



6: 



through ; but all are> occasionally aided by the 
actual power and presence of one of these men. 
Here in London, as in Paris and St. Petersburgh, 
there are men high in development. But they 
are only known as mystics by those who have 
the power to recognize ; the power given by the 
conquering of self. Otherwise how could they 
exist, even for an hour, in such a mental and 
psychic atmosphere as is created by the confusion 
and disorder of a city? Unless protected and 
made safe their own growth would be interfered 
with, their work injured. And the neophyte 
may meet an adept in the flesh, may live in the 
same house with him, and yet be unable to 
recognize him, and unable to make his own 
voice heard by him. For no nearness in space, 
no closeness of relations, no daily intimacy, can 
do away with the inexorable laws which give the 
adept his seclusion. No voice penetrates to his 
inner hearing till it has become a divine voice, a 
voice which gives no utterance to the cries of self. 
Any lesser appeal would be as useless, as much 
a waste of energy and power, as for mere chil- 
dren who are learning their alphabet to be taught 
it by a professor of philology. Until a man has 
become in heart and spirit, a disciple, he has no 
existence for those who are teachers of disciples. 
And he becomes this by one method only — 



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Comments on Light on the Path' 



the surrender of his personal humanity. 

For the voice to have lost the power to wound, 
a man must have reached that point where 
he sees himself only as one of the vast multitude 
that live ; one of the sands washed hither and 
thither by the sea of vibratory existence. It is 
said that every grain of sand in the ocean bed 
does, in its turn, get washed up on to the shore 
and lie for a moment in the sunshine. So with 
human beings, they are driven hither and thither 
by a great force, and each, in his turn, finds the 
sunrays on him. When a man is able to regard 
his own life as part of a whole like this he will 
no longer struggle in order to obtain anything 
for himself. This is the surrender of personal 
rights. The ordinary man expects, not to take 
equal fortunes with the rest of the world, but in 
some points, about which he cares, to fare better 
than the others. The disciple does not expect 
this. Therefore, though he be, like Epictetus, a 
chained slave, he has no word to say about it. 
He knows that the wheel of life turns ceaselessly. 
Burne Jones has shown it in his marvellous pict- 
ure — the wheel turns, and on it are bound the 
rich and the poor, the great and the small — each 
has its moment of good fortune when the wheel 
brings him uppermost — the King rises and falls, k 
the poet is feted and forgotten, the slave is happy 



Comments o?i Light on the Path. 63 



and afterwards discarded. Each in his turn is 
crushed as the wheel turns on. The disciple 
knows that this is so, and though it is his duty 
to make the utmost of the life that is his, he 
neither complains of it nor is elated by it, nor does 
he complain against the better fortune of others. 
All alike, as he well knows, are but learning a 
lesson ; and he smiles at the socialist and the re- 
former who endeavor by sheer force to re-ar- 
range circumstances which arise out of the forces 
of human nature itself. This is but kicking 
against the pricks ; a waste of life and energy. 

In realising this a man surrenders his imagined 
individual rights, of whatever sort. That takes 
away one keen sting which is common to all or- 
dinary men. 

When the disciple has fully recognized that 
the very thought of individual rights is only the 
outcome of the venomous quality in himself, that 
it is the hiss of the snake of self which poisons 
with its sting his own life and the lives of those 
about him, then he is ready to take part in a year- 
ly ceremony which is open to all neophytes who 
are prepared for it. All weapons of defence and 
offence are given up ; all weapons of mind and 
heart, and brain, and spirit. Never again can 
another man be regarded as a person who can 
be criticised or condemned ; never again can the 



64 Comments 011 Light on the Path' 



neophyte raise his voice in self-defence or excuse. 
From that ceremony he turns into the world as 
helpless, as unprotected, as a new-born child. 
That, indeed, is what he is. He has begun to be 
born again on to the higher plane of life, that 
breezy and well-lit plateau from whence the eyes 
see intelligently and regard the world with a 
new insight. 

I have said, a little way back, that after parting 
with the sense of individual rights, the disciple 
must part also with the sense of self-respect and 
of virtue. This may sound a terrible doctrine, yet 
all occultists know well that it is not a doctrine, 
but a fact. He who thinks himself holier than 
another, he who has any pride in his own ex- 
emption from vice or folly, he who believes him- 
self wise, or in any way superior to his fellow men 
is incapable of discipleship. A man must be- 
come as a little child before he can enter into 
the kingdom of heaven. 

Virtue and wisdom are sublime things ; but if 
they create pride and a consciousness of separate- 
ness from the rest of humanity in the mind of a 
man, then they are only the snakes of self re-ap- 
pearing in a finer form. At any moment he may 
put on his grosser shape and sting as fiercely as 
when he inspired the actions of a murderer who 
kills for gain or hatred, or a politician who 



Comments on Light on tlie Path. 



65 



sacrifices the mass for his own or his party's 
interests. 

In fact, to have lost the power to wound, im- 
plies that the snake is not only scotched, but 
killed. When it is merely stupefied or lulled to 
sleep it awakes again and the disciple uses his 
knowledge and his power for his own ends, and 
is a pupil of the many masters of the black art, 
for the road to destruction is very broad and easy, 
and the way can be found blindfold. That it is 
the way to destruction is evident, for when a man 
begins to live for self he narrows his horizon 
steadily till at last the fierce driving inwards 
leaves him but the space of a pin's-head to dwell 
in. We have all seen this phenomenon occur in 
ordinary life. A man who becomes selfish iso- 
lates himself, grows less interesting and less 
agreeable to others. The sight is an awful one, 
and people shrink from a very selfish person at 
last, as from a beast of prey. How much more 
awful is it when it occurs on the advanced 
plane of life, with the added powers of knowledge, 
and through the greater sweep of successive in- 
carnations ! 

Therefore I say, pause and think well upon 
the threshold. For if the demand of the neophyte 
is made without the complete purification, it will 
not penetrate the seclusion of the divine adept, 



66 



Comments on Light on the Path. 



but will evoke the terrible forces which attend 
upon the black side of our human nature. 

" Before the soul can stand in the presence of the Masters, its 
feet must be washed in the blood of the heart." 

The word soul, as used here, means the divine 
soul, or " starry spirit." 

"To be able to stand is to have confidence; " 
and to have confidence means that the disciple is 
sure of himself, that he has surrendered his 
emotions, his very self, even his humanity ; that 
he is incapable of fear and unconscious of pain ; 
that his whole consciousness is centred in the 
divine life, which is expressed symbolically by the 
term "the Masters;" that he has neither eyes, 
nor ears, nor speech, nor power, save in and for 
the divine ray on which his highest sense has 
touched. Then is he fearless, free from suffering, 
free from anxiety or dismay ; his soul stands 
without shrinking or desire of postponement, in 
the full blaze of the divine light which penetrates 
through and through his being. Then he has 
come into his inheritance and can claim his kin- 
ship with the teachers of men ; he is upright, he 
has raised his head, he breathes the same air that 
they do. 

But before it is in any way possible for him to 
do this, the feet of the soul must be washed mi h 
blood of the heart. 



Comments on Light on the Path. 



67 



The sacrifice, or surrender of the heart of man, 
and its emotions, is the first of the rules ; it in- 
volves the " attaining of an equilibrium which 
cannot be shaken by personal emotion." This 
is done by the stoic philosopher ; he, too, stands 
aside and looks equably upon his own sufferings, 
as well as on those of others. 

In the same way that " tears " in the language 
of occultists expresses the soul of emotion, not 
its material appearance, so blood expresses, not 
that blood which is an essential of physical life, 
but the vital creative principle in man's nature, 
which drives him into human life in order to ex- 
perience pain and pleasure, joy and sorrow. 
When he has let the blood flow from the heart 
he stands before the Masters as a pure spirit 
which no longer wishes to incarnate for the sake 
of emotion and experience. Through great cy- 
cles of time successive incarnations in gross mat- 
ter may yet be his lot ; but he no longer desires 
them, the crude wish to live has departed from 
him. When he takes upon him man's form in 
the flesh he does it in the pursuit of a divine ob- 
ject, to accomplish the work of " the Masters," 
and for no other end. He looks neither for 
pleasure nor pain, asks for no heaven, and fears 
no hell ; yet he has entered upon a great inher- 
itance which is not so much a compensation for 



68 Comments on Light on the Path. 

these things surrendered, as a state which simply 
blots out the memory of them. He lives now 
not in the world, but with it ; his horizon has 
extended itself to the width of the whole universe. 

A 



HOW BEST TO BECOME A THEOSO- 
PHIST. 



Brothers and Sisters Theosophists, — In address- 
ing you I feel deeply impressed with the importance 
of the question I now put to you — How best to be- 
come a theosophist? 

As a preliminary observation I need scarcely remind 
you that all who aspire to become theosophists pledge 
themselves to live a pure, simple, temperate, and self- 
denying life, and with brotherly and sisterly love. 

Theosophy means the science of the wisdom of God. 
But who is there among us who shall presume to dog- 
matise on a science beyond the comprehension of the 
human mind ? for " who (in soul life) can by searching 
find out God? or who can find out the Almighty unto 
perfection ? " 

All we can do is to conceive in our minds an idea 
in harmony with our highest inspirations, and in doing 
so we shall accept of the axiom of the initiated King 
of Israel, when he said, " The awe of God is the begin- 
ning of wisdom." 

Let us here recall the definition of our position as 
laid down in the rules of our Society which read 
thus : — 

" The British Theosophical Society is founded for 
the purpose of discovering the nature and powers of 



4 HOW BEST TO BECOME A THEOSOPHIST. 



the human soul and spirit by investigation and experi- 
ment. 

" Our object is to increase the amount of human 
health, happiness, knowledge, wisdom, and goodness ; 
and we pledge ourselves to the best of our powers, to 
live a life of truth, temperance, purity, and brotherly 
love. 

"We believe in a great first intelligent Cause, and 
in the Divine sonship of the spirit of man, and hence 
in the immortality of that spirit, and in the universal 
brotherhood of the human race." 

This is truly a holy and sublime programme, and 
the question which should present itself for our con- 
tinual consideration is, " How best shall we carry out 
these rules, and thus become theosophists ? " 

In endeavouring to arrive at the best method, I shall 
do my best to present all sides of the question with 
fairness and submission; and if I fail to point out 
the truest method, or, in your opinion, under-estimate 
any method, or over-estimate any other method, it will 
be for you to exercise your reason, and in a brotherly 
and sisterly way point out the defects. This, I beg 
to say, once for all, that you cannot confer a greater 
favour than by, now and at all times, pointing out 
any defect in manner, matter, or thought, which you 
may discover in your President ; and if you promise to 
show me this kindness, I will now frankly promise in 
return to render you a like service, for thus we shall 
" bear each other's infirmities," and thus fulfil one of 
the highest laws. 

I feel how unworthy I am to occupy the position 
you have placed me in, but in all I say I shall endeau>m 
to speak in the spirit so sublimely expressed by out; 



HOW BEST TO BECOME A THEOSOPHIST. 5 



of the most intensely true and loving of men, himself 
apparently an initiate, and at least illuminated with that 
knowledge without which there can be no comprehen- 
sion of theosophy — the triune nature of man as Body, 
Soul, and Spirit. This Paul of Tarsus says, when writ- 
ing to those of his society then residing in \ihe city of 
Corinth : — 

" Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels, 
and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass 
and a tinkling cymbal ; and although I have the gift 
of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all 
knowledge, and although I have all faith, so that I 
could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am 
nothing ; and although I give all my goods to feed the 
poor, and although I give my body to be burned, and 
have not charity, it prohteth me nothing." 

This magnificent picture of charity or love cannot 
be surpassed in nobleness of expression, and I submit 
that our Society could not do better than write -it up 
as our initiatory rule of life. 

We all, I understand, fully realise the trinity in man 
of body, soul, and spirit; and thus it is that our rules 
indicate that we shall do our best to increase our 
bodily health, our souls' strength and purity, and the 
exaltation of the spirit; and we all, I think, thus un- 
derstand that the central essence of all true religion 
i3 one and identical, namely, to evoke the hidden spiritual 
centre of the soul, and unite that with God. 

We see this and thus also we are able to see, that just 
in proportion as we descend from this sublime stand- 
point, and attempt to formulate our belief by symbols, 
or by a ritual, we encounter the danger of more or less 
worshipping the creature in the place o£ the Creator; 



6 HOW BEST TO BECOME A THEOSOPHIST. 



and of descending into idolatry, dogmatism, sectarianism, 
and intolerance. 

This, I think, all theosophists will admit; and yet the 
. human mind, so long at least as it is united to the body, 
demands something more tangible, and more loveable, 
and more capable of application to daily life than is found 
in the sublime but abstract and incomprehensible idea of 
a central spiritual essence. 

Hence religion, although its essential meaning is religio, 
to rebind, that is, to rebind the spirit of man with the 
Spirit of God, has, in harmony with human nature, been 
formulated as the Spirit of the Son seeking the Spirit of 
the Father. And thus in all nations, and in all ages of 
the world, religion has attempted to concrete itself, and 
in doing so, and in attempting to realise the Divine Mind, 
has worshipped that idea as exhibited in or by the ad- 
vent from time to time of Avatars, or manifestations of 
the Logos or Wisdom, or Spirit of God, in Divine and 
miraculous men. 

Hence we have Gautama Buddha in the East and Jesus 
Christ in the West, who, esoterically considered, may be 
said to teach the one great law of religion, namely, that 
man can only know the Divine by evoking the gift of 
God, the Divine light which lies latent within him, and 
by which light only he can know his Father, and thus 
return to the bosom of his God. 

But although it may in a sense be said that these two 
esoterically considered are one, yet each would seem to 
have been moulded in body, soul, and spirit, in harmony 
with the physical aspects of Nature, as existing on thai 
part of our planet on which he appeared. 

In the East we find a hot atmosphere, a luxurious vege- 
tation, and stupendous mountains; and the form the 



HOW BEST TO BECOME A THEOSOPHIST. 



religion takes is that of power, subtlety, contemplation, 
stillness, repose, rest, sleep, and entrancement ; and the 
ascetic life, with its diet of fruits, vegetables, and cereals, 
and its soul-power — entrancement and magic. 

In the West, on the other hand, we find a more temper- 
ate climate and a more active life — a bigger brain and a 
manifestation of a wider range of the intellectual ana 
practical life; and while we find the same prayer and 
contemplation and sacrifice of the bodily desires as in the 
East, we find at the same time less subtlety and idealism 
— less repose, but more energy — a severer standard of 
truth and a more practical benevolence. 

In the East we find abstraction, subtlety, secrecy, and 
the magical power of the individual; in the West we find 
prayer, a fervid and open boldness with truth, and a spir- 
itual love content with nothing less than the salvation of 
the whole world. 

Moreover, I believe this, that there is in the moral and 
spiritual progress of the world an evolution, as in the 
vegetable and animal creation ; and with Tennyson I can 
say that 

" I doubt not through the ages an increasing purpose runs, 
And the thoughts of men are widened by the process of the suns." 

We find that all esoteric and ascetic forms of religion 
take the same ground regarding the body, namely, that it 
must be brought under subjection to the soul, and thereby 
rendered a fitter temple for the rule of the spirit. 

In this respect the East seems to me to have a more 
complete and scientific method than the West, for in the 
East the method has been systematised after a manner 
almost unknown in the West, and regarding which no 
systematic rules are laid down, either by Jesus of Naz- 



8 HOW BEST TO BECOME A THEOSOPHIST. 



areth, or by any of His disciples ; although this may per- 
haps be explained by the fact that no universal and minute 
rules can be laid down with regard to physical details, for 
that which might be best in Central India could not be 
best in London or in Greenland. 

When I attempt to describe the Eastern method, I do 
not pretend to speak with authority as to details, because, 
as we all know, the innermost details are hidden from all 
but the initiated, and we, as a society, after one year's 
connection with the East, have not yet received more than 
a few fragments of knowledge to be picked up at the 
threshold. 

Broadly stated, however, the occult and ascetic method 
of the East, consists in a life separated from th£ family 
ties, and all the anxieties and discords of the world, and 
in which continual contemplation of God is required. 

The devotee must live a life of absolute chastity ; he 
must abstain from the flesh of animals and from all alco- 
hols, and he must practise frequent ablutions. 

Having freed his soul from bodily desires and his body 
from superfluous flesh, he must still further totally ab- 
stract himself from the world, and fix his thoughts on 
the supreme centre ; after which, by the practice of retain- 
ing the breath, the attainment of which power is progres- 
sive, he ultimately obtains the "Internal respiration," 
and by the final assistance of those who know, he projects 
his soul into the astral, and thus becoming the one internal 
sense he is as a unity at one with God — knowing good 
and evil, and working as a divine and magical man. 

How the adept lives after this stupendous victory, or 
how he occupies his life, or what his desires and works 
are, we in the West know very little, except generally. 

It is seen, however, that ae becomes a magician in the 



HOW BEST TO BECOME A THEOSOPHIST. & 

best sense ; and so long as he fixes his thoughts on God 
as the supreme power, and truth, and love, he must live a 
life of abstract if not active goodness. 

Having these magical powers, moreover, he must, unless 
simple and wise and true and loving, be exposed to terri- 
ble temptations; and if "the angels kept not their first 
estate," but by " ambition, that last infirmity of noble 
minds," fell, " how can man, then, the {frail) image of 
his Maker, hope to win by it?" Or how shall he escape 
the fate of that " Lucifer son of the morning "who, aspir- 
ing to be as God, was cast out of heaven and fell headlong 
v into the abyss ? 1 

But the idea of the adept is most fascinating to the 
human mind, and to attain to the dignity and power of 
the magical man is an ambition far transcending all 
earthly ambition. 

The idea of the true adept is one whose powers and 
knowledge far transcend all merely human power and 
knowledge, and with him riches and worldly honours, 
and rank and distinction, are as nothing. But for this 
very reason the adept, I conceive, must be for ever in a 
critical position. 

To subdue our base and worldly and animal desires is 
comparatively an easy triumph over matter. Will-force 

1 Colonel Olcott, in the Theosophist, p. 213, says, " The adept 
though unseen is yet ever doing good." Bnt as this good is 
wrought secretly we have no idea what direction it takes. So 
far as I know it has not in modern times manifested itself openly 
in Poetry, Art, Science, Philosophy, Theology, or Philanthropy, 
and herein lies one great distinction from Christian saintship 
which for ever obeys the command to let its light shine before 
men. Truly spiritual adepts in the East will not be offended by 
these remarks, because they will instinctively know that they 
are made in all sincerity. 



10 HOW BEST TO BECOME A THEOSOPHIST. 



is sufficient for that. But this very will-force must for 
ever present the temptation of that self-will, which be- 
comes spiritual tyranny ; and if it be true that the adept 
controls and uses for his high purposes the souls of weaker 
spirits, how can he escape that penalty which follows all 
slaveholding ? Must he not sooner or later be compelled 
to pay the price for work done? Or " can any man touch 
pitch and not be defiled ? " 

Secrecy as an essential in Eastern adept-ship is so far a 
good, as it is of the nature of that reticence which is so 
far strength ; but can secrecy be maintained for a life- 
time, and be the essence of one's life, and not tend to 
engender selfishness? 

In certain conditions of society, and for certain ends, 
secrecy may be essential to safety ; but perhaps the day 
is beginning to arrive when even with adeptship the rule 
of absolute secrecy may be relaxed, and it almost seems 
as if Madame Blavatsky, as editor of The Theosophist, 
were really preparing the way to give us a second and 
true edition of " Isis ( fully') Unveiled." 

Another question suggests itself to us as members of 
the British Theosophical Society. If, as we are told, 
some of those who practise yogi perish from over-strained 
bodies, while others, becoming entangled in the middle 
passage, are torn to pieces by the demons of infernal 
desire, how could we, the pale faces of the West, endure 
the ordeal? Unless, indeed, the victory were gained after 
a long and systematic training of soul and body. 

Finally we may ask, granting that magical powers can 
be obtained by these spiritual athletes, should we of the 
West, at least, not be in the position of those physical 
athletes, of whom we know that they ever stand on the 
verge of dangerous disease? 



HOW BEST TO BECOME A THEOSOPHIST. 11 



But T have already confessed that we know almost 
nothing of the powers or mode of life followed by the 
Eastern adept. 

Perhaps one may some day appear in our midst and 
instruct us, although it may be a question whether he 
could, with advantage to himself, forsake his native soil 
and air, and, isolated from his brothers, stand before us. 

But although we are ignorant, and therefore must speak 
with discretion regarding the adeptship of the East, we 
can with knowledge and confidence speak regarding what 
I ask permission, for the sake of analogy, to call the 
Christian adeptship of the West, because in the life and 
teachings of Jesus of Nazareth we find the history of the 
greatest of all the magicians 1 who ever stood on this planet, 
because lie sought not His own will, but the will of Him 
who sent Him. 

His rule of life is distinctly laid down in words, and 
was openly and continually manifested in His life and 
works ; and all who choose may freely enrol themselves 
as brothers and sisters of His order, while those who 
begin to live the life will at once begin to know the 
doctrine ; and those who truly live the life will know the 
doctrine in its fulness. 

Now the rules for Christian adeptship we find fully 
laid down by the Founder Himself in His Sermon from 
the Mount. 

The historian, after a rapid sketch of the birth and 
early life of Jesus of Xazareth, suddenly introduces Him 
as entering on His public life as a teacher of righteousness 
and a worker of miracles. 

1 I use this term, magician, again for the sake of analogy and 
as signifying the Master of Divine Knowledge, Wisdom, and 
Power. 



12 HOW BEST TO BECOME A THEOSOPHIST. 



We find, if I may reverently use the term, that He com 
pleted His initiation by going into the wilderness and 
fasting forty days and forty nights, after which He was 
" an hungered." 

Then, as in Eastern initiation, still following the par- 
allel, He became subject to the test temptations of what 
is called the devil, but which Easterns and moderns call 
evil spirits; and thus the narrative proceeds. 

" And the tempter came to Him and said : H Thou be 
the Son of God, command that these stones be made 
bread. But He answered and said : Man shall not live 
by bread alone, but by every word proceeding out of the 
mouth of God. Then the devil taketh Him up into the 
Holy City and setteth Him on a pinnacle of the temple, 
and said unto Him: If Thou be the Son of God, cast 
Thyself down, for it is written, He shall give His angels 
charge concerning Thee, and in their hands they shall 
bear Thee up, lest Thou dash Thy foot against a stone. 
And Jesus answered and said : It is written, Thou shalt 
not tempt the Lord thy God. Again the devil taketh 
Him up into an exceeding high mountain, and showeth 
Him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, 
and said unto Him: All these things will I give Thee if 
Thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then Jesus an- 
swered and said : Get thee behind Me, Satan, for it is 
written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him 
only shalt thou serve. Then the devil left Him, and 
angels came and ministered unto Him." 

We could not conceive a grander tableau of that soul 
which, aspiring to be a Son, and thus one with God, in- 
fallibly encounters the demons of the middle passage, but 
triumphing over these, the world, the flesh, and the devil, 
from henceforth lives with the angelic ministrations. 



HOW BEST TO BECOME A THEOSOPHIST. 13 



Thus we find — From that time Jesus (having left the 
wilderness and entered on His ministry) began to preach 
and to say, " Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at 
hand," and "taking His disciples up into a mountain 
apart," He propounded unto them the entire rule of His 
adeptship as follows. 1 

Whosoever would be My disciple must crucify those 
affections and lusts which war against the soul, and must 
take up his cross daily and follow Me (The Logos) ; and 
no one who loveth father or mother, or brother or sisters, 
or houses or lands, more than Me (Divine Wisdom) can 
be My disciple. 

And he who would (selfishly) save his life shall lose it, 
but he who would lose his life (for righteousness) shall 
find it ; for to be dead in the flesh is to be alive in the 
spirit, and what would it profit a man to gain the whole 
world and lose his own soul, or what shall a man give in 
exchange for his soul ? 

And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off and cast it 
from thee, for it is better to enter into life maimed, rather 
than with two hands to be cast into hell fire. And if thy 
right eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee, 
for it is better to enter into life with one eye, rather than 
with two eyes to be cast into hell fire. And lay not up 
for yourselves (redundant) treasures upon earth, where 
moth and rust do corrupt, and where thieves break through 
and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, 
where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, nor thieves 
break through and steal ; for where your treasure is, there 

1 The rule is taken almost entirely from the Sermon on the 
Mount, but the sentences are sometimes transposed, and some- 
times cumulated directly or indirectly from the teachings of 
Jesus. 



14 HOW BEST TO BECOME A THEOSOPHIST. 



will your heart be also. And take no (inordinate) thought 
as to what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, or where- 
withal ye shall be clothed, for your Father knoweth that 
ye have need of these things. But consider the lilies how 
they grow ; they toil not, neither do they spin, and yet I 
say unto you that Solomon in all his glory was not ar- 
rayed like one of these. And behold the fowls of the air. 
for they sow not, neither do they reap nor gather into 
barns ; yet your Heavenly Father feedeth them. 

Whether, therefore, ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye 
do, do all (with sacrifice) to the glory of God ; and who- 
soever would be great among you, let him be your minis- 
ter, and who would be chief among you, let him be your 
servant. And choose not the uppermost rooms at feasts, 
nor the chief seats at the synagogue, nor greetings in the 
market-place, nor to be called Master, for One is your 
Master, even Christ. 

But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His right- 
eousness, and all things else shall be added unto you. 

And, behold, the kingdom of heaven is within you, the 
true light that lighteth every soul that cometh into the 
world. But except ye be born again ye cannot enter into 
the kingdom of God. And no man can serve two mas- 
ters, therefore resist the devil, and he will flee from you, 
and draw near unto God, and He will draw near unto 
you; for if your eye be single, your whole body shall be 
full of light. 

But except you become as little children, whose angels 
do always behold the face of the Father, ye cannot enter 
into the kingdom of heaven. 

And whosoever liveth the life shall know of the doc- 
trine. 

Then to him who overcometh will I give to eat of the 



HOW BEST TO BECOME A THEOSOPHIST. 15 



tree which is in the midst of the paradise of God, even 
the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and 
in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth 
save he that receiveth it ; a name unlawful and impossi- 
ble (for the human larynx) to utter ; but thou shalt be- 
hold the King in His beauty, and the Lord shall be thy 
light. 

Then shall rough places become plain, and crooked 
places shall become straight, and ye shall tread on ser- 
pents, and heal the diseased, and open the eyes of the 
blind, and cleanse the lepers, and stop the mouths of 
lions, and quench the violence of fire, and cast out devils, 
and raise the dead, and be yourselves raised from the 
dead. 

Xevertheless, rejoice not that the spirits are subject 
unto you, but rather rejoice that your names are written 
in heaven. 

But let him who standeth take heed lest he fall, and 
watch and pray lest ye enter into temptation, for the Son 
of Man cometh at an hour when ye think not. Ask, and 
ye shall receive ; seek, and ye shall find ; knock, and it 
shall be opened unto you : yet strive ye to enter into the 
strait gate, for strait is the gate, and narrow is the way 
that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. 

But see that your light shine before men, that they, 
seeing your good works, may glorify your Father which 
is in heaven. 

Therefore, let love be without dissimulation; abhor 
that which is evil, and cleave to that which is good. Let 
brotherly love continue, in honour preferring one an- 
other. 

Resent not injuries, and give no place unto wrath ; but 
love your enemies, and bless them which curse you, and 



16 HOW BEST TO BECOME A THEOSOPHIST. 



pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute 
you ; for freely ye have received, therefore freely give. 

Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. 

Finally, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy 
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and 
with all thy strength, and thy neighbour as thyself ; for 
this is the whole of the law and the prophets, and none 
other commandment is greater than these. 

Then blessed are the humble, for theirs is the kingdom 
of heaven. 

And blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the 
earth. 

And blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after 
righteousness, for they shall be filled. 

And blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain 
mercy. 

And blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called 
the children of God. 

And blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see 
God. 

Thus, with a power beyond all merely human words, 
for " never man spake as this Man," are revealed to us 
the rules of Christian adeptship ; that is, in one word, So 
to empty the soul of self that the Father, becoming manifest 
in His Sons, illuminates and regenerates the world. 

In the East, adeptship is secret and mysterious, and 
hidden from all except a select few, who have passed 
through an ordeal so severe and dangerous that many, it 
is said, perish in body or in soul on making the attempt, 
and into which select few no woman has ever been fully 
admitted. 

But the Christian adept not only invites but implores 
all to enter into the order. 



HOW BEST TO BECOME A THEOSOPHIST. 17 



The Oriental adept obtains magical or soul power ovei 
matter, which he uses for his own high ends — and over 
inferior spirits. But the Christian adept or saint desires 
only to communicate with angels or with the Holy Spirit, 
while his life is spent in openly transmuting his spiritual 
powers into good works for the good of mankind. 

But you will ask — Have any men or women by follow 
ing Christ's rules, and by living the life, ever reached to 
that spiritual power over ordinary law which we believe 
is obtained by Oriental magicians ? 

To this question I reply emphatically — Yes. 

The founder of the system not only possessed powers 
far beyond any ever manifested by any magician, but he 
conferred those powers on His disciples by breathing on 
them and saying, " Receive ye the Holy Spirit." 

These disciples went out and healed all manner of dis- 
eases, and cast out devils, and spake with tongues, and 
foretold events, as He had done. And like powers have 
from time to time been manifested in the lives of Chris- 
tian saints, who, forsaking self have found God. 

St. Ignatius Loyola, St. Teresa, Savonarola, and others 
in the middle ages wrought miracles, and, becoming born of 
the spirit, ascended in the air, becoming transfigured and 
effulgent, while others were caught up into paradise and 
" beheld that glory which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, 
nor hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive." 

In modern times like instances have occurred ; and in 
the life of the Cure D'Ars, who left this earth only a few 
years ago, we have an example of a man wholly self-sac- 
rificing, and wholly given to God and good works. He 
became a divine and miraculous man, and with the power 
of prayer and the laying on of hands he cured all manner 
of disease ; he saw the secrets of those who hid from hire 



18 HOW BEST TO BECOME A THEOSOPHIST. 



in confession their inner sins. He transformed wicked 
men and women into repentant, remorseful, and good 
beings by a mere word, or touch of the hand, or glance of 
the eye ; and while he himself lived on crusts and water, 
he fed an orphanage of children, sometimes by a miracu- 
lous increase of bread. 

In the life also of the Protestant Sister Dora we see the 
Divine possibilities of a Christian faith as exemplified in 
a life of devout self-sacrifice accompanied by all but 
superhuman powers. 

I must not, however, be misunderstood as exhibiting 
the lives of the Romish saints as perfect patterns for us 
to follow. 

For the most part they lived under the tyrannical influ- 
ence of an ignorant and superstitious and self-seeking 
priesthood, and they committed the fatal error of think- 
ing that it was holy to mascerate and disfigure their 
bodies, under the delusion that the body was all sin, and 
the soul only holy. 

But the Theosophist knows, on the contrary, that the 
body is a necessary part of our triune nature ; and, as the 
temple of the spirit, must be rendered clean, pure, strong, 
and beautiful. 

But can we Theosophists in London, surrounded by the 
noise and care and routine of daily life, with its money 
anxieties, attain to that life of holy self-sacrifice, the re- 
sult of which with the saints was the gift of miracle ? 

Can we, in short, reach that Regeneration of soul and 
body which is the essence of the Hermetic mysteries, and 
without which, Christ says, we cannot enter (directly) into 
the kingdom of heaven ? 

This regeneration was signified by the successive fer- 
mentations, deaths, and distillations of the salts of the 



HOW BEST TO BECOME A THEOSOPHIST. 19 



alchemists, through which process the perfect gold and 
the elixir were achieved — signifying a sevenfold process 
of deaths and resurrections, and corresponding to the 
days of the creation of the earth and man, which culmi- 
nated in the Angel in Paradise, in a Sabbath of peace and 
perfection. 

This regeneration or transfiguration may be further 
illustrated by the law of crystals, wherein a positive acid 
dominating a negative alkali thus creates a body called a 
salt, it may be triangular in shape and of a dull colour ; 
which crystal may in its turn be seized by a more positive 
acid, the weaker acid displaced, and the crystal re-formed 
or regenerated into, it may be, a hexagonal crystal, in colour 
effulgent. 

The nearest approach to this in our experience, is when 
the sensitive, who may be an ignorant and almost an ugly 
woman, is during entrancement transfigured sometimes 
into almost angelic beauty. 

But such transformations or regenerations are in our 
experience evanescent — resembling that transient glimpse 
of happiness got when the sun, glinting through the 
leaden clouds hanging on a highland hill, illuminates the 
gorse and the heather, and creates a momentary fairyland 
of magical beauty. 

The question, then, of how far true regeneration of soul 
and body is possible for us is not easily answered, for so 
far as we know there has not occurred one perfect in- 
stance on this earth during the last eighteen hundred 
years. 

But with the Spirit all things are possible. At the 
same time, " strait is the gate and narrow is the way that 
leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." 

But, as our rule says, the object of this society is by 



20 HOVT BEST TO BECOME A THEOSOPHIST. 



investigation, and experiment to discover the nature and 
power of the soul and spirit ; and if so, may I now ask, 
are there any in this society willing to enter upon these 
experiments in person ? 

Let us all begin as neophytes, and see how far we can 
practise a life of self-denial and unselfishness, free from 
scandals, strifes, envy, and jealousy, but full of brotherly 
love. 

The essence of all sin, and therefore of all weakness, is 
selfishness, and the foundation of all true spiritual power 
is love, self-denial, and unselfishness. And as like attracts 
like, let us set our affections on things above, for if we do 
so, angelic spirits will minister unto us, for thus should 
" we surround ourselves with the forms of our affections." 

" Draw near unto God," for thus only does the Spirit 
draw near unto you ; and thus it is that we can see how 
the highest science of psychology, namely, a knowledge of 
how to save the soul, consists merely in believing and in 
asking truthfully, sincerely, and unselfishly. 

If you do this, then not only will gradually come to 
you health and strength of body, but clearness and purity 
of mind, and that " Spirit which will lead you into all 
truth." 

****** 

Those who have watched the transformations which 
sometimes take place in ecstatic entrancement, where 
perhaps some almost ugly and ignorant person suddenly 
becomes radiant, and moves with consummate grace, as 
she utters words of heavenly wisdom, will easily under- 
stand how the enlightened, trained, and purified Christian 
neophyte may rise to beatific visions. 

If any one is prepared to say, " I no longer desire to 
feed on the husks which the swine do eat; I desire to 



HOW BEST TO BECOME A THEOSOPHIST. 23 



•forsake the sins which so easily beset me;'" and -who 
says, M I will arise and go to my Father ; " "I will set my 
face steadfastly to go to Jerusalem," as He did who knew 
that insults, crucifixion, and death awaited Him; or who, 
like the child Samuel, as he watched in the temple, says, 
" Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth ; " — if there be any 
such a one, then while listening, he or she will become 
conscious that there is One " who stands at the door and 
knocks " — and very suddenly, it may be, you will be led 
rapidly through the vestibule and into the presence cham- 
ber, and " your eyes shall behold the King in His beauty," 
while by an ineffable effulgence, " the secret of tlie Logos " 
— 11 the kingdom of heaven within you " — "the Lord of the 
Temple" — will be revealed. Then no longer will you 
ask how best to become a Theosophist; for you will 
know, because you have already, while on earth, attained 
to the spiritual resurrection of your body, and to eternal 
life in the presence of your God. 



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